George W. Bush Still Very Unpopular

Doug Mataconis · · 16 comments

Four years out of office has done little to improve the image of the 43rd President of the United States:

According to the most recent NBC/WSJ poll, conducted April 5-8, 35 percent of Americans view him favorably, versus 44 percent who view him negatively. Those numbers are virtually unchanged from the five other NBC/WSJ polls that have measured Bush since the summer of 2010, although they’re an improvement from when he left office (31 percent fav/58 percent unfav). Indeed, out of the six public figures the current NBC/WSJ poll measured — including President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Sen.Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and New York City Michael Bloomberg – Bush had the worst net fav/unfav score.

Not surprisingly, Bush’s favorability numbers among demographic groups tend to mirror those of the Republican Party:

The subgroups that have a net-positive view of Bush are Republicans (65 percent favorable/14 percent unfavorable), conservatives (60 percent/19 percent), seniors (48 percent/31 percent), rural Americans (43 percent/35 percent), Southerners (43 percent/37 percent), and whites (40 percent/39 percent). But he is deeply unpopular among most other subgroups, including the biggest parts of Obama’s coalition — 18-34 year olds (26 percent/46 percent), African Americans (19 percent/64 percent), and Latinos (27 percent/44 percent). In fact, Bush’s worst age group is the 18 to 34 year old, and his best are seniors. He also has a net-negative with the swing demographic groups: suburban residents (37 percent/41 percent) and independents (30 percent/45 percent). And while Bush has a net-positive rating in the South, he’s negative everywhere else: Northeast (30 percent/53 percent), Midwest (32 percent/46 percent), and West (32 percent/42 percent).

In other words, the GOP still has a millstone named “George W. Bush” weighing it down.