Obama Worst U.S. President Since WWII

 

Americans think sitting President Barack Obama is the nation's worst leader since the last World War, according to a poll released this morning.

A third of Americans singled-out Obama as their least favorite president since 1945 in Quinnipiac University's latest presidential poll, just ahead of George W. Bush, who received 28 percent of the vote.

In a head-to-head match-up between the two most recent presidents, Bush and Obama, Bush narrowly came out the victor, with 40 percent of survey-takers saying he was a better president than Obama and 39 percent saying he was worse.

Ranked in order of how bad Americans say they were, the 12 presidents included in the survey were: Obama, Bush, Richard Nixon,  Jimmy Carter, Lyndon Johnson, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy.

Americans told Quinnipiac the best man to serve as leader of the free world since WWII was Reagan, a former Hollywood actor who held the office of the president for two terms from 1981- 1989.

Reagan took a solid 35 percent of the vote, beating out his closest competitor, Clinton, by 17 points.

Clinton, who was impeached by Congress during his second term for lying about his sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, was selected by 18 percent of the poll's takers as their favorite. 

Fellow philandering president John F. Kennedy came in third with 15 percent of the vote.

Obama's favorability ratings were underwater in nearly every issue area Quinnipiac asked voters about except the environment.

The president scored below 50 percent on healthcare, the economy, terrorism and foreign policy.

Respondents were clear about their disapproval of the president's signature law Obamacare. The nays beat out the yeas by 12 points.

Questions about the way Obama was doing his job overall were also met with bad news for the president.

A majority, 53 percent, said they did not approve of the job he was doing, while 40 percent they approved.

Likewise, 51 percent said Obama does not have 'strong leadership qualities,' compared to the 47 percent of respondents who said he does.

Americans were split over whether they could trust Obama, with 48 percent answering in the affirmative and 48 percent answering in the negative.

'Would Mitt have been a better fit? More voters in hindsight say yes,' Malloy said in a statement.

The White House struggled to defend the president's bad showing in the Quinnipiac poll when a reporter broached the subject this afternoon at press secretary John Earnest's daily briefing.

Asked if Obama still has 'the chops' to call on the American people to support his crusade against Congress, Earnest said,'There's no doubt that the president has the leadership and stature necessary to call upon the American public to rally around the kinds of ideas that are in the best interests of the country.'

'The president is going to continue to do that,' he said.

The White House will find out soon enough if its instincts were correct. Voters go to the ballot box in four months to elect a new Congress.