CNN Poll: Three out of four Americans glad to see Bush go
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/12/26/art.bush26.gi.jpg caption="Three-fourths of those polled are glad to see Bush's presidency end."](CNN) - As President George W. Bush gets ready to leave the White House in three-and-a-half weeks, and a new national poll suggests that three out of four Americans feel his departure is coming not a moment too soon.
Seventy-five percent of those questioned in a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they're glad President Bush is going, with 23 percent indicating they'll miss him.
"Earlier this year, Bush scored some of the lowest presidential approval ratings we've seen in half a century, so it's understandable that the public is eager for a new president to step in," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.
The three-quarters of Americans surveyed who say they won't miss Bush is 24 points higher than the 51 percent who said they wouldn't miss Bill Clinton when he left office in January 2001. Forty-five percent of those questioned at that time said they would miss Clinton.
"As President Bush prepares to leave office, the American public has a parting thought: Good riddance. At least that's the way three-quarters feel," says CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider.
The poll indicates that Bush has been compared poorly to his predecessors, with 28 percent saying that he's the worst ever when compared to other presidents in American history. Forty percent rate Bush as poor and 31 percent feel he's been a good president.
Only a third of those polled want Bush to remain active in public life after he leaves the White House, with two-thirds saying they don't want him to stay active in a public way. That 33 percent figure who want Bush to remain in the public eye is 22 points lower than those questioned in 2001 who wanted Bill Clinton to retain a public role.
"Bush has dropped on a number of measures but possibly the biggest is that only one in five say he inspires confidence. That's an important figure when the country is facing its biggest economic crisis in a generation," says Holland.
When running for the White House in the 2000 presidential campaign, Bush promised to be a uniter, not a divider.
But the poll suggests that 82 percent feel that Bush did not unite the country, with 17 percent saying he did.
"The vast majority of Americans believed he betrayed his promise to unite the country," says Schneider. "He took a country that was divided under President Clinton and he divided it worse."
Only 27 percent of those questioned in the poll approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president, with 72 percent in disapproval. Bush's job approval rating has been at or below freezing since the beginning of the year, says Schneider - one of the lowest ratings for any president, ever.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted December 19-21, with 1,013 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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janet in ohio,
I'm calling you out specifically because your post is so ridiculous, but you're far from alone. Please remember being righteous is not the same as being self-righteous.
I'm doin' this tonight,
You're probably gonna start a fight.
I know this can't be right.
Hey Georgie come on,
I loved you endlessly,
When you weren't there for me.
So now it's time to leave and make it alone
I know that I can't take no more
It ain't no lie
I wanna see you out that door
Baby, bye, bye, bye...
I didn't realize that only 25% of American's were true blue patriotic Americans
I find the majority of these comments quite amusing...ah the altrusim of the so called liberals. Let us not forget, the reason Bush was elected was thanks to your "hero" Bill "I did not have sex with that woman (3 years older than his daughter), Monica Lewinsky" Clinton. How soon the apologists selectively forget.
CAN'T BE SOON ENOUGH – and with appoximately 3 weeks left to suffer with this "lame duck", what kind of problems is he going to stir up before he is gone? In addition, he is a disgrace to this country, in ignoring critical issues, in ignoring the American people, in allowing Paulson to "throw money to Wall Street" (and for what), and the refusal to pardon the two Border Patrol Agents who were "thrown in
jail" over an Illegal Alien pushing drugs and doing their job! What kind of person is so cruel and so nonconcerned and does not DEFEND THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM!!
Prison for him and his cronies, and shame for all who voted for him and supported Iraq invasion.
Thank you President Bush for keeping this country safe. Contrary to popular belief, that is the president's #1 job. CNN thinks the president is supposed to look good with his shirt off and pretend to be Abe Lincoln.
We don't need the pools for that.... we all have common sense...
To MadDog 2020:
We refuse to accept your bad apple! Bush is and always will be a full-blooded repubican. Don't try to disown him now that he is a failure. Stand by your man! LOL!
Sad to see him go?There should be rejoicing and dancing in the streets when Shrub makes his much anticipated exit from the national scene.Let's just hope that spells the end to what has been the most corrupt and disastrous administration in history.To those who claim that Shrub kept you safe after 9/11,there only had to be one to set the whole agenda rolling.
All I have to say is...good riddance to bad rubbish. January 20th 2009 can't come quick enough for me!
Great! Now Bush is being accused of being a bad president because "he was more like a Democrat than a Republican". Jesus, some of you people still cannot admit how badly the Republican party and Bush screwed up. You people are true sociopaths. The stand he took against terrorists (atfter 9/11?) is the same action any president would have taken after our nation had been attacked, dummy. The difference would have been that Bush went after the wrong bad guy when he tricked Congress and the American people into invading Iraq. Anyone else would not have had been so stupid and dishonest.
NO more Bush! And that goes double (unconstitutional) for Jeb!
One heckava celebration on 1/20/09! End of an error.