24% and 75%
This week, George Bush finally broke all records with the most unfavourable ratings ever at 24% – lower than either Truman or Nixon.
At the same time, Barack Obama recorded the most favourable ratings ever for an incoming president at 75%.
Of course, these two phenomena are not unrelated. No doubt, Obama’s ratings will fall when he enters the White House and starts to make the tough decisions. Probably, in a few years, there will be revisionist biographies of Bush claiming that his presidency was not quite so bad as his final ratings suggested.
But, in the meanwhile, never at any time in my lifetime has there been such a contrast between the standing of an outgoing and an incoming US president. Truly these are historic times.