# 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:** 7
**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, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/121 "2014-07-05T03:34:46Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > ‘People who got insured under the ACA are probably all poors, LOL.’ The things I learn on the Internet! The primary beneficiaries of ACA are those who previously lacked insurance. That would mostly be poorer people. > [@](#): > > I’ll go break the news to Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Paul Ryan. You should. After Obama, the GOP would be crazy, and hypocritical, to nominate someone with the same qualifications as Barack Obama. And the Democrats would be extremely happy to also be hypocritical and attack them as inexperienced. ---
**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 5, 2014, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/122 "2014-07-05T12:07:30Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > 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. No, historians don’t look at polling. And your analysis of Obama’s accomplishments is as inaccurate as your analysis of Obama’s election and re-election chances. ---
**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 5, 2014, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/123 "2014-07-05T12:14:33Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > You should. After Obama, the GOP would be crazy, and hypocritical, to nominate someone with the same qualifications as Barack Obama. And the Democrats would be extremely happy to also be hypocritical and attack them as inexperienced. This ‘qualifications’ canard that you bring up again and again is just ridiculous. In 2012, Obama was infinitely more qualified to be President of the United States than everyone on earth except for four living people. And yet you still brought it up (and still bring it up, even as the list is down to two), again and again. It just shows how unimportant ‘qualifications’ actually are. No one who hasn’t been president is ‘qualified’. All Presidents learn how to do it on the job. VPs who were closely involved with their Presidents probably have a bit less learning on the job, but even they have to figure it out as they go. ---
**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 5, 2014, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/124 "2014-07-05T12:16:57Z")
**adaher** , you’re too personally invested in the idea of Obama as a failed president (which you’ve admitted!) to provide any sort of reasonable objective analysis of him as a man or as a president. Everything you say about him is so obviously colored by your personal opinions of him, rather than any facts, that it just can’t be taken seriously. ---
**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, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/125 "2014-07-05T12:32:39Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > No, historians don’t look at polling. And your analysis of Obama’s accomplishments is as inaccurate as your analysis of Obama’s election and re-election chances. I didn’t say they look at polling, only that polling and how history views a President correlate fairly reliably. Truman is an exception. He succeeded one of the great American Presidents due to his death and presided over very tough times and had to handle a lot of stuff that had no precedent in our history. Obama succeeded one of the worst Presidents of all time and the public was willing to give him every benefit of the doubt. The public blamed Bush for the country’s situation up until recently. How many Presidents get 5-6 years to blame all problems on their predecessor? There isn’t a single challenge Obama has faced that other, better Presidents haven’t. Obama is not Truman. If he’s at 41% when he leaves office, it will be because the public’s judgement was as accurate as historians’ will be. ---
**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, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/126 "2014-07-05T12:44:51Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > It just shows how unimportant ‘qualifications’ actually are. No one who hasn’t been president is ‘qualified’. All Presidents learn how to do it on the job. VPs who were closely involved with their Presidents probably have a bit less learning on the job, but even they have to figure it out as they go. By that logic, anyone can do the job. It’s just not so. The qualifications that matter most, judging by the records of post-war Presidents, is management and leadership experience. Barack Obama is the only President in the post-war era to not have it. It shows. The only other Senator to be elected President in the post-war era was JFK, and he led men in the military. You know what they teach in the military? Accountability. There is nothing in Obama’s experience that ever subjected him to accountability. Except for the legislature, which teaches how to avoid accountability. He is pretty good at that. He has you fooled. But hey, I’m curious. If Obama was qualified to be President, then that means any Harvard grad who was in a state legislature is ready to be President. Who knew our country had so many people capable of running the federal government? Oh wait, Obama proved that a Harvard education and legislative experience isn’t enough. Plus he violated a cardinal rule of management: when your plate is already full, you don’t demand more to manage. He can’t manage the government’s existing functions, yet he’s always demanding that the legislature give him more to do. He just doesn’t know what he’s doing, and that alone proves it. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/127 "2014-07-05T13:33:36Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > By that logic, anyone can do the job. It’s just not so. The qualifications that matter most, judging by the records of post-war Presidents, is management and leadership experience. Barack Obama is the only President in the post-war era to not have it. It shows. The only other Senator to be elected President in the post-war era was JFK, and he led men in the military. > > You know what they teach in the military? Accountability. There is nothing in Obama’s experience that ever subjected him to accountability. Except for the legislature, which teaches how to avoid accountability. He is pretty good at that. He has you fooled… I think people like you on the Right tend to be a bit inconsistent with your criteria for “leadership”. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/128 "2014-07-05T15:28:31Z")
I’m still waiting for all those stories about Obama attacking Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![WWhiskey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f9ae1b/32.png) [@WWhiskey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WWhiskey)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/129 "2014-07-05T15:54:39Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I’m still waiting for all those stories about Obama attacking Republicans. Hell Obama attacking himself is as hilarious as anything out there! Just look up anything Senator Obama said he would do as president then follow it with what he actually does. ---
**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 5, 2014, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/130 "2014-07-05T16:31:41Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > By that logic, anyone can do the job. It’s just not so. This is not what I’ve said. Sure, qualifications matter. But your argument about qualifications is incoherent and inconsistent. It makes no sense, and you’re constantly changing it. > [@](#): > > There is nothing in Obama’s experience that ever subjected him to accountability. Except for the legislature, which teaches how to avoid accountability. He is pretty good at that. He has you fooled. All politicians learn how to avoid accountability, and try to both take credit for good things and avoid blame for bad things, whether deserved or not. You’re describing every president ever. > [@](#): > > But hey, I’m curious. If Obama was qualified to be President, then that means any Harvard grad who was in a state legislature is ready to be President. No it doesn’t. Your argument, again, makes no sense at all. > [@](#): > > Who knew our country had so many people capable of running the federal government? Oh wait, Obama proved that a Harvard education and legislative experience isn’t enough. Of course it’s not enough. Obama had and has far more than that. He also, of course, has more experience _at being president_ than everyone on earth but 2 people. > [@](#): > > Plus he violated a cardinal rule of management: when your plate is already full, you don’t demand more to manage. He can’t manage the government’s existing functions, yet he’s always demanding that the legislature give him more to do. He just doesn’t know what he’s doing, and that alone proves it. This is complete nonsense. It makes no sense whatsoever. You’re just spouting Hannity talking points again. No one buys this shit but you. ---
**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 5, 2014, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/131 "2014-07-05T16:36:27Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > I didn’t say they look at polling, only that polling and how history views a President correlate fairly reliably. Truman is an exception. He succeeded one of the great American Presidents due to his death and presided over very tough times and had to handle a lot of stuff that had no precedent in our history. There are many exceptions. Polling is volatile, and pretty much every President was in the 40s (or lower) at some point. It makes no sense to view “now” as special. > [@](#): > > Obama succeeded one of the worst Presidents of all time and the public was willing to give him every benefit of the doubt. The public blamed Bush for the country’s situation up until recently. How many Presidents get 5-6 years to blame all problems on their predecessor? There isn’t a single challenge Obama has faced that other, better Presidents haven’t. Obama is not Truman. If he’s at 41% when he leaves office, it will be because the public’s judgement was as accurate as historians’ will be. Every sentence after the first two is complete nonsense, and based on nothing factual. You know as well as I do that if the ACA, as is or in a modified form (including a “graduation” to single-payer), is successful and popular, long term, Obama will be viewed as a good president at the very least. Your desperation to try and avoid this is obvious and pathetic. ---
**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 5, 2014, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/132 "2014-07-05T16:40:03Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Sure, qualifications matter. Just to expand what I mean about qualifications mattering – the ‘bar’ has to be met by the public. Only the public determines whether this bar is met, and it’s usually met in the primaries. Once the bar is met, qualifications don’t matter much at all. What matters is the abilities of the president – abilities to put forward good ideas, and convince the public to agree (among others). Every president has to learn how to be president on the job. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/133 "2014-07-05T17:00:02Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > It seems pretty accurate to me. I don’t remember Carter well, but in terms of leadership ability Obama is simply bad. When dealing with world leaders, he comes across as wishy-washy & inconsequential, and consequently the US seems to have pretty much zero clout these days. (The fact that our current Secretary of State is a used animatronic figure from Disney World probably enters into this, but Obama himself isn’t doing us any favors, either. And he nominated Kerry.) Look at how recent major events have played out: > > (1) Syria uses chemical weapons. Obama gives a stern “Bad boy! Don’t do that!” Syria shrugs us off, and in the end it’s Russia who convinces the Syrian government to declare its chemical weapons and ship them out for destruction. > > (2) Russia invades the Crimea, and stirs up trouble in eastern Ukraine. Obama gives a stern “Bad boy! Don’t do that!” Russia says “Fuck you!” annexes Crimea, and is still stirring up trouble in eastern Ukraine, albeit with a bit more sublety than before. > > (3) Iraq is falling apart. The Iraqi government askes the US for help against the rebels. Obama yawns and says “Well, I dunno, maybe we can find some advisors or something. I’ll see if anyone’s not busy today.” As a result, Iraq turns to Iran (of all people) for help, and it just said it’ll get help from Russia if the US won’t help them. > > Aside from international matters, there’s also the fact that Obama simply cannot work with Congress. Yes, there are a lot of Republicans trying to stop him, but Obama himself doesn’t seem to be able to compromise or negotiate. He’s a “my way or the highway” type of leader. And as a result, he tends to get the highway. You need to distinguish between the PR image that gets bandied about in the U.S. domestic media, and what the leaders of the world actually think. (You don’t really know what they’re thinking.) The problem is that Obama doesn’t bother to pose or present simplistic comic book images for the U.S. public. But if that’s what you want, you can always go read some more comic books. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2014, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/134 "2014-07-06T15:38:24Z")
This is easily explained. There were enough bad Republican Presidents to split the vote so Obama came out ahead. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2014, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/135 "2014-07-06T16:04:22Z")
By my count, there’s two bad GOP Presidents: GWB and Nixon. There are three bad Democratic Presidents: Obama, Carter, LBJ. No, it’s that the GOP voters can focus better than the Democratic voters. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2014, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/136 "2014-07-06T16:35:47Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > By my count, there’s two bad GOP Presidents: GWB and Nixon. There are three bad Democratic Presidents: Obama, Carter, LBJ. > > No, it’s that the GOP voters can focus better than the Democratic voters. I agree, except I would subtract Obama, Carter, and LBJ from the list of bad Democratic presidents and add Reagan to the list of bad Republican presidents. ---
**Author:** ![orangeapples](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@orangeapples](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orangeapples)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2014, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/137 "2014-07-06T16:43:02Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > By my count, there’s two bad GOP Presidents: GWB and Nixon. There are three bad Democratic Presidents: Obama, Carter, LBJ. > > No, it’s that the GOP voters can focus better than the Democratic voters. Fixate might be the more appropriate term. ---
**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/138 "2014-07-23T04:00:37Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > By my count, there’s two bad GOP Presidents: GWB and Nixon. There are three bad Democratic Presidents: Obama, Carter, LBJ. > > No, it’s that the GOP voters can focus better than the Democratic voters. Where’s Clinton as a bad Democratic President? I remember very well the vitriol directed at Clinton when he was president nearly on par with what I hear directed at Obama now. It’s funny how the right doesn’t have much bad to say about Clinton now other than Monicagate. ---
**Author:** ![runningdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@runningdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runningdude)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/139 "2014-07-23T07:06:17Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I think people like you on the Right tend to be a bit inconsistent with your criteria for “leadership”. Please explain, where does the “right” show inconsistency in its criteria for “leadership”? ---
**Author:** ![runningdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@runningdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runningdude)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186/140 "2014-07-23T07:13:20Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Something else to keep in mind here: Americans are deliberately forgetful about their own history. For some reason it’s part of the national character- due to our awesomeness, I’m sure. Please, do tell, how are American’s forgetting their own history? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-finds-obama-is-the-worst-president-since-world-war-ii/692186.md?page=8)