George W. Bush Now More Popular Among Americans Than Obama, Poll Reveals
Former President George W. Bush is now enjoying a higher favorability rating than President Barack Obama, a new survey has revealed, and shows that Americans' opinion of Obama has continued to decline.
The CNN/ORC poll, released on Wednesday, noted that 52 percent of American adults who responded to the survey have a favorable impression of Bush, while 43 percent have an unfavorable view. The former president's public image has improved significantly since leaving office, seeing that back in 2009 only one-third of respondents said they have a positive opinion of him.
Obama, however, now has only 45 percent of America's approval, while 52 percent disapprove of the job he has been doing in office. The rise in the disapproval rating cross party lines.
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Opinions on how the country is doing as a whole also continue to drop. In March, 53 percent of respondents said they believe the U.S. is doing well, now only 47 percent say the same, with 52 percent saying that the country is doing badly.
The economy continues to be the most important public issue for respondents, with 22 percent of those who voted selecting it as the top issue in the country.
"Despite the public's focus on the economy, it may not be the issue driving down Obama's approval ratings. While the public's assessment of his handling of the economy is about the same as it was in February, he's lost ground on his handling of ISIS (down 8 points since February)," CNN pointed out.
"Obama's best mark on issues comes for his handling of race relations: 50% say they approve, 47% disapprove, while he tallies his worst marks on issues where his partisans are most apt to disapprove."
The survey was conducted by telephone between May 29-31 among a random national sample of 1,025 adults, with the margin of sampling error of +/- three percentage points.
Other recent surveys have found, however, that Obama's rating among the American public still remains mostly favorable.
A Gallup poll from May said that Obama's favorability stands at 53 percent, which is an improvement on the below 50 percent approval ratings he received for the majority of the past year, and his highest since September 2013.
Gallup also pointed out that supportive views of Obama are likely due to his attempt to bridge communities in recent months, such as police and racial minorities.
