Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the most useless of them all? Obama rated WORST president since WW2 in embarrassing poll

Sitting president Barack Obama was cited as the worst U.S. president out of the dozen men who have held the position dating back to 1945

Former Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan ranked first on survey-takers' lists, followed by philandering presidents Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy

Americans are so chafed by Obama's leadership that they say the country would be better off with businessman and 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney at the helm

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.



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Buyer's Remorse: Americans say the country would be better off if Obama, pictured here yesterday watching the U.S. in the World Cup, had lost to businessman Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush are by far the most disliked U.S. presidents since 1945

'Over the span of 69 years of American history and 12 presidencies, President Barack Obama finds himself with President George W. Bush at the bottom of the popularity barrel,' Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a statement.

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.

Miss me yet?: Americans are starting to think that George W. Bush, pictured here in April, wasn't that bad of a president after all, compared to Obama Ronald Reagan is still the most beloved president in modern history. This December 1987 photo was taken while he giving a speech in Washington, D.C.

'I believe that we will win': Obama hops on the World Cup bandwagon to lead White House employees in a soccer chant at the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building before yesterday afternoon's match between the USA and Belgium

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.

The poll also hinted at a bit of buyer's remorse among voters.



By a margin of 45 percent to 38 percent, respondents to Quinnipiac's poll said they think the country would be better off if businessman and Republican politician Mitt Romney had been elected president in 2012 instead of Obama.

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



Fairweather friends: Even young people, like the ones pictured at Obama's speech yesterday, say they prefer Reagan to Obama

Obama is pictured here yesterday greeting his fans at the Georgetown Waterfront Park in Washington, D.C., where he gave a speech about the importance of funding transportation and infrastructure projects

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.



Seemingly unphased by the news that Americans have said in every recent poll that they don't agree with the direction in which Obama is taking the country, Earnest went on to explain how the 'power' of the president's 'ideas' would propel him forward, as would the 'power wielded by citizens all across this country.'

Americans 'have within them, based on our system of government, the ability to bring pressure on their elected representatives to actually act in the best interests of the country,' Earnest said before changing topics.

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.



Generic congressional polls taken in the last several weeks put Democrats slightly ahead, but still within the margin of error.



Republicans are likely to keep the House, but the Senate, which is currently controlled by the president's party, could go either way.

