What are the lowest approval ratings a sitting president (of the USA) has ever had?
Note: As this is a GQ thread, discussions of the Current sitting president are verboten, unless they answer the above question.
Nixon hit 24 percent.
Gallup had Truman at 23 percent, presumably right after firing MacArthur.
I noticed something interesting in those stats.
Both Bush Sr. and Ford had end-of-presidency approval ratings higher than 50%, (56% and 53%, respectively) but both failed in their reelection bids. Is the message “You did a good job, but we think someone else could do better”? Or is it “take polls with a big grain of salt”?
Buyer’s remorse.
For the record, Bush’s approval rating is now at a new low, according to an AP/Ipsos poll released today.
Bush’s approval rating is now at 39 percent.
This CBS poll has him at 37%. That’s three points better than what Nixon had when he resigned.
I’m pretty sure you would find that their approval ratings at the time of the elections they lost (instead of three months after) were lower. Knowing that the term is going to end may also change people’s perceptions, I don’t know.
I think Marley23 pegged it, but I always take polls with a massive grain of salt.
It’s very easy to influence the answers by subtly rephrasing the questions (e.g., “do you approve of Bill Clinton’s actions during his presidency” and “do you approve of the job Bill Clinton did as president” would get you very different answers). Similarly, timing is everything. Were these “end of presidency job approval ratings” done on each president’s last day in office, or did they wait a while? Clinton’s rating would have changed between his last day, the big publicity breaking on pardongate, and the retrospection after it all calmed down.
It could be “Now that we’re rid of the bastard, we can stop dwelling on his screwups, and we’re generally feeling good anyway about the new guy who hasn’t screwed up yet”.