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[Adventurer]

Bush leaving office more unpopular than NixonStory Highlights
Over three-quarters, 76 percent, disapprove of President Bush

Bush approval rating is lower than President Nixon's after Watergate

Majority, 57 percent, believe transition to President Obama will be relatively easy

Next Article in Politics �


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By Paul Steinhauser
CNN Deputy Political Director

WASHINGTON DC (CNN) -- On the day that President-elect Barack Obama is visiting the White House, a new national poll suggests that the current occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the most unpopular president since approval ratings were first sought more than six decades ago.


President Bush has the lowest presidential approval rating in the history of such polling.

Seventy-six percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday disapprove of how President Bush is handling his job.

That's an all-time high in CNN polling and in Gallup polling dating back to World War II.

"No other president's disapproval rating has gone higher than 70 percent. Bush has managed to do that three times so far this year," says CNN polling director Keating Holland. "That means that Bush is now more unpopular than Richard Nixon was when he resigned from office during Watergate with a 66 percent disapproval rating."

Before Bush, the record holder for presidential disapproval was Harry Truman, with a 67 percent disapproval rating in January of 1952, his last full year in office.

As Obama visits the White House to start the transition from the Bush administration to an Obama administration, 57 percent of those questioned think the transfer of power will be relatively easy and free from tension, with 39 percent saying the transition will be difficult. Watch what Bush and Obama may talk about �


"A majority say that the transition from Bush to Obama will go smoothly, although nearly one in four predict a lot of tension between Bush aides and Obama aides in the next few weeks. That sentiment is highest among Democrats, but even among them, a majority believes that the transition will be relatively easy," Holland said. Watch Obama's ambitious agenda �

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted Thursday through Sunday with 1,246 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

HARDTOBEBUSH

[On the other hand]

During the ongoing lame-duck season, when the president tends to stay out of public discussion, I think I had sorta forgotten how unpopular Bush had become.

Then of course came the election results.

[Gopher]

That is right.

How is the Democratic Congress doing these days, while we are talking about approval ratings...?

[On the other hand]

[Gopher]

Spin.

H. Reid and N. Pelosi's Congress's approval rating stands at approximately ten percent. That is a dismal number, On the Other Hand.

[On the other hand]

[Gopher]

[On the other hand]

One more thing, Gopher...

If my analysis is incorrect, and public discontent with the Democratic Congress really does have significance, why did the Dems increase their control of congress last week?

[On the other hand]

[Gopher]

The approval rating has fallen since then. It seems to continue to fall.

Congress did not win any points in its handling of the financial crisis last month, either. I am talking about the pork.

[Gopher]

[On the other hand]

[Gopher]

And, for at least some of that, the flipside, On the Other Hand: "who were you planning on voting against...?" Or "is it not nice that our representative is the Speaker and should we not keep her there, no matter how we feel about her performance?"

Those, too, influence voter decision-making.

[Kuros]

[Gopher]