CNN ran a poll and found out that the lump of coal from yesteryear sure damn well looks good now:
George W. Bush has turned his unpopularity upside down.
Six in 10 Americans, 61%, say they now have a favorable view of the 43rd President of the United States in the latest CNN poll conducted by SSRS, nearly double the 33% who gave him a favorable mark when he left the White House in January 2009.
To be sure, comparing Bush to Trump will make Bush look good. While Trump has yet to preside over a recession – those typically take a couple of years to build up to – he’s had a number of scandals already, and worse yet, his general job performance can be easily labeled as completely incompetent.
But none of this excuses Bush’s performance in office, which included a failed war in Afghanistan that no one can salvage, an unnecessary war in Iraq initiated on faked evidence that, in fact, many people saw through, and a little dip into the torture pool which should never have happened.
And then there was the Great Recession, marked by the rescue effort of the banks which infuriated so many folks.
In a more sober nation, this result would never happen. Bush’s rating would remain deservedly and pointedly low. Anyone who’d care to look would see the disaster that was Bush, the rebuilding effort led by Barack “scandal-free” Obama, and then Trump’s purposeful dive into the toxic waste dump. They’d understand that the GOP has a real problem with wise governance.
But that won’t happen. Bush has put forth a few statements critical of Trump, he’s taken up painting, and he’s more or less stayed out of the daily fray. Add in the folks who weren’t old enough to pay attention 15 years ago, and, well, he almost looks reasonable. You have to actually, like, read a bit to realize the Bush Administration was really quite the disaster.
