Bush Job Approval at 28%, Lowest of His Administration

Presidents who receive job approval ratings in the 20% range are generally beset by economic concerns, wars, or scandals. Truman, who has the dubious distinction of obtaining the lowest job approval rating in Gallup Poll history, had the triple whammy of a bad economy, an unpopular war, and hints of scandal in the last years of his administration. Nixon, of course, was primarily laid low by Watergate, although he had been the steward of an unpopular war for most of the years after he took office in January 1969. Carter was in the middle of a bad economy and sharply rising gas prices when he suffered a 28% job approval rating in the summer of 1979.

Now, Bush, the current president, has obtained a 28% job approval rating at a time when Americans are extraordinarily worried about the economy, when gas prices have risen to historical high points, in the middle of a war that the majority of Americans say was a mistake, and at a time when only 15% of Americans say they are satisfied with the way things are going in the United States.

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