Interesting Question from Politics Class

[Nick]

If you were to give George W. Bush an approval rating today, based on everything that has happened since he was both inaugurated and left office, with full hindsight ability, what rating would you give him?

The discussion came up because we were discussing how many policies by many Presidents seem wildly unpopular at the time, but down the road, they are viewed in a more favorable light.

What say you?

[Buffalo Phil]

I'll give him a 50-75% rating only because I believe that many people still support him, but really no more than 50% and then add a few other percent of people who voted for Obama and now regret it, swing voters. I'd give him a solid 55% approval rating now. There are still a lot of people out there that aren't going to approve of him mainly becuase he had an (R) next to his name.

[Crazy Reid]

I took this to mean how the country views him:

He is remebered as kind of a dope. Not a very good public speaker and disliked for getting the U.S. into war. Blame for the financial situation on the his administration is still discussed in the news.

To be as unbiased as possible, I can't see how his approval rating is anywhere near 50%. I would say that somewhere around 35% of the country would view him favorably.


My person opion: we have had very few great presidents and a fair amount of good ones. "W" doesnt fall into either category. His approval ratings will rise slightly the more he slips from memory like his father before him. And will only be discussed in history classes, unless we never pull back as a country. Then his ratings will plummet more, marked as when people started realising that government is as awesome as we used to think it was

[Buffalo Phil]

I took this to mean how the country views him:

He is remebered as kind of a dope. Not a very good public speaker and disliked for getting the U.S. into war. Blame for the financial situation on the his administration is still discussed in the news.

To be as unbiased as possible, I can't see how his approval rating is anywhere near 50%. I would say that somewhere around 35% of the country would view him favorably.


My person opion: we have had very few great presidents and a fair amount of good ones. "W" doesnt fall into either category. His approval ratings will rise slightly the more he slips from memory like his father before him. And will only be discussed in history classes, unless we never pull back as a country. Then his ratings will plummet more, marked as when people started realising that government is as awesome as we used to think it was

See, therein lies a huge problem, many people with the biggest opinions on the internet are too young to have know past presidents so they will instantly assume that Bush was the leading cause of most of the country's problems. We blame Bush for the war in Iraq, but 5 years later under the Obama administration and we are still embroiled in the war and he has sent our troops and ships to other conflicts around the world. People blame Bush for the economic crisis yet it was part of a problem that has been broiling since the Carter and Reagan administrations, and the current administration just keeps spending money adding again to a problem that's been persisting for years.

Bush will always have that 'bad rap' with the younger population because of the way the media portraited him.

[Bigbike]

Bush will always have that 'bad rap' with the younger population because of the way the media portraited him.

I agree.... The media is the issue with a lot of things...

[armadasx]

I agree.... The media is the issue with a lot of things...

The media is the issue with everything...

[Zullock Holmes]

George W. Bush is a great american and one of the best modern day presidents.

[Crazy Reid]

Media and Time both play into how we look back on his presidency. I thought that was the reason for the question. A lot of people, especially young people, still have a bad taste in their mouth from the views crammed down their throats during his presidency.

Same as Clinton is now, the farther we are in time from his time in office, the more favorable his ratings will be. During the Clinton administration, the media kept throwing nothing but his scandal at everyones faces and not actual diplomacy. This led to a big hit to his appoval ratings. Now that he has been out of office for awhile, his ratings are as high, if not higherthan when he was in office. Granted he will always have that black mark (or white stain... badum tsh), same as how G.W. Bush has with the wars.

Everyone still likes Ulyssus S. Grant, and never seem to remember he was a raging drunk