# Poll finds Obama is the worst president since World War II **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 2, 2014, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186 "2014-07-02T13:08:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/101 "2014-07-04T17:09:00Z")
The republican congress has far worse approval numbers than Obama. I guess they’re done. A lot of them don’t even act congressional. Know what else? Sometimes Fox “News” buries stories that are unfavorable to republicans. They get called on it and shit. Unemployment has dropped four points and yet congress hasn’t gotten any credit. Why do think that is? It’s proof that they don’t act congressional and Americans don’t trust them. Wait, wait, don’t go. Don’t you want to hear some more complete stupidity I pull out my ass? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/102 "2014-07-04T17:29:22Z")
The Congressional Republicans are up for reelection and can be reaffirmed by the public. Most of them are not lame ducks. When Obama is gone, they’ll still be there. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/103 "2014-07-04T17:30:52Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > The wildly hysterical, batshit crazy reaction? Thousands of Republicans rolling around on the floor, screaming their heads off? Shit like that? Okay, so ACA is significant because it pissed off Republicans? Was that your goal when you voted for Obama? Well it worked. Too bad he won’t leave a lasting legacy other than ACA(and possibly might not even leave that behind if the GOP wins the Presidency in 2016). ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/104 "2014-07-04T18:41:56Z")
Odd that it didn’t piss off Republicans very much when it was their idea. I wonder what was different? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/105 "2014-07-04T18:44:13Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Too bad he won’t leave a lasting legacy other than ACA(and possibly might not even leave that behind if the GOP wins the Presidency in 2016). Ah yes, the “we’ll repeal the law somehow and replace it with something we can’t explain!” lie. That worked great in 2012 and I bet it’ll be gangbusters in 2016. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/106 "2014-07-04T18:58:14Z")
Or, they can just repeal it to demonstrate how useless his Presidency was. That alone should be instructive to Democrats next time they get ideas about ramming through major legislation when they know they have a tiny window. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/107 "2014-07-04T19:09:42Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Or, they can just repeal it to demonstrate how useless his Presidency was. All but the stupidest Republicans realize they can’t strip 10 million people of their health insurance. You can see this if you look at their rhetoric. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/108 "2014-07-04T19:16:45Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Or, they can just repeal it to demonstrate how useless his Presidency was. That alone should be instructive to Democrats next time they get ideas about ramming through major legislation when they know they have a tiny window. [Patriot Act.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Act) ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/109 "2014-07-04T19:41:59Z")
All the democrats have to do is wait. In a generation, getting a single-payer system installed will be a breeze. The republican party, as currently constituted, is the last whimper of a dying demographic clinging to a dead ideology. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/110 "2014-07-04T21:48:49Z")
Afraid it’s not that easy. There’s this little thing called brains that voters have. Believe it or not, they are not informed by their identity. Americans kinda like America, it’s why they live here and not Sweden. And even Sweden doesn’t have single payer. Runner Pat, the Patriot Act was a bipartisan act. It certainly qualifies as a rushed through piece of legislation, but if you want a better comparison to ACA, you’ll prefer Medicare Part D. And even that’s not the same, because Republicans have never functioned under the theory that their window was limited. Republicans figure if they won the last election they can win the next one. Democrats seem to always assume that when they take control of both elected branches that they’ll lose it. Which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/111 "2014-07-04T22:16:39Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > All but the stupidest Republicans realize they can’t strip 10 million people of their health insurance. You can see this if you look at their rhetoric. See, here’s what I’ve wondered about this point: won’t their base cheer that those 10 million useless lazy welfare queens aren’t vacuuming money out of the pockets of honest hardworking Americans anymore? And haven’t the Republican Congress proven time and time again that they really only need their base to win, especially with gerrymandered districts? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/112 "2014-07-04T22:33:23Z")
No, Marley’s right. ALthough the number isn’t as high as he thinks. First, there’s those who had insurance previously and lost it due to ACA. They will not complain about going back to their old policies. Second, there’ the small matter of fraud. There’s still no system in place to verify that people are eligible for the subsidies they are claiming. Once such a system is in place(probably after Obama), that will reduce the numbers of people in the exchanges. Maybe a little, maybe a lot. Then there’s the fact that the individual mandate could be the key to the whole thing. the President hasn’t had the courage to fully implement it yet. Republicans, if they win, should not develop such courage in his place. Use prosecutorial discretion to not enforce the mandate, and if that kills ACA, it kills ACA. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/113 "2014-07-04T22:35:16Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Afraid it’s not that easy. There’s this little thing called brains that voters have. Yes. And if Republicans tell voters “If you vote for us, we’ll take away a benefit you like just to stick it to Obama,” voters will learn a lesson from that. > [@](#): > > Republicans figure if they won the last election they can win the next one. They lost in 2008 and 2012, but who’s counting? > [@Leaper](#): > > See, here’s what I’ve wondered about this point: won’t their base cheer that those 10 million useless lazy welfare queens aren’t vacuuming money out of the pockets of honest hardworking Americans anymore? And haven’t the Republican Congress proven time and time again that they really only need their base to win, especially with gerrymandered districts? They would like to win the White House at some point. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/114 "2014-07-04T22:43:31Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Yes. And if Republicans tell voters “If you vote for us, we’ll take away a benefit you like just to stick it to Obama,” voters will learn a lesson from that. I’m not sure enough people are truly affected who aren’t Democratic base voters already to make a difference. > [@](#): > > They would like to win the White House at some point. Historically, that tends to happen no matter what eventually. Even when Republicans were truly a minority party they were able to win the White House frequently. If Obama leaves office with a 41% approval rating, that’s going to weigh heavily on Hillary Clinton. She did work for him after all. The Republican candidate isn’t going to be coming from Congress. Won’t be easy to hang Congress’ unpopularity on him. Outsider vs. insider. That rarely goes well for the insider. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/115 "2014-07-04T22:46:05Z")
The polls will get a lot better for Obama once president Clinton is elected. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/116 "2014-07-04T23:24:26Z")
The ACA debate is over. The Republicans don’t even bring it up any more except for throwing red meat to their base. The public pretty overwhelmingly opposes straight repeal. As far as Obama’s polling, in the middle of terms it doesn’t mean much at all. And this goes for mid-term presidential polling for just about every president. Clinton’s approval rating was extremely high at this point in '98, and it only moved the mid-term election needle a tad towards his party. History doesn’t care about polling, it cares about accomplishments. The ACA naysayers have already been proven wrong about nearly every prediction they’ve made – it hasn’t resulted in great cost increases, it hasn’t bankrupted America, and it has covered millions of the uninsured. And the number of folks who have inferior or more costly insurance due to the ACA is pretty small, and very exaggerated by opponents. Far more people have better insurance than worse insurance due to the ACA. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/117 "2014-07-05T00:47:03Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > I’m not sure enough people are truly affected who aren’t Democratic base voters already to make a difference. ‘People who got insured under the ACA are probably all poors, LOL.’ The things I learn on the Internet! > [@](#): > > The Republican candidate isn’t going to be coming from Congress. I’ll go break the news to Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Paul Ryan. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/118 "2014-07-05T00:59:17Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’ll go break the news to Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Paul Ryan. I was so hoping for Ted Cruz. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/119 "2014-07-05T01:37:24Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/120 "2014-07-05T03:32:47Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > History doesn’t care about polling, it cares about accomplishments. Polling gives the historians a pretty good indication of what the public thought of a President and most Presidents with low polling end up being poorly regarded by history. They ain’t all Truman. LBJ still fucked up Vietnam, Nixon is still corrupt, Carter is still regarded as feckless, GWB will always be a disaster, and Obama will always be regarded as incompetent. Unless he does something to massively turn his administration around, but face it, the guy barely seems interested anymore. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186.md?page=7)