Survey shows President Obama as unpopular as George W Bush

Washington: US President Barack Obama’s popularity rating hit a new low with a majority of Americans adjudging him as unpopular as his predecessor George W Bush, a latest opinion poll has said. “Obama is now as unpopular as Bush. Fifty-one percent have an unfavourable view of Bush; 51 percent feel the same way about Obama,” said the CNN/ORC International poll. “Obama’s favourable rating is now at 47 percent - a new low for him, and virtually identical to Bush’s 46 percent favourable rating, a significant improvement over his 2009 numbers,” it said. [caption id=“attachment_1369889” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Barack Obama in this file photo. AFP[/caption] “This marks the first time in a CNN poll that a majority of Americans have an unfavourable view of Obama,” said CNN Polling director Keating Holland. “And, at 51 percent, his unfavourable his higher than his favourables for the first time as well,” Holland added. As for Bush, his numbers have gradually edged up over the years since he left the White House, and is now on par with Obama, CNN said. Both Bush and Obama have much lower favourable ratings than the two men that preceded them in the White House. Sixty-eight percent of the public has a positive view of former President Bill Clinton and 58 percent say they have favourable opinion of former President George HW Bush. The poll also said that the favourable rating of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has dropped from 67 percent in March of 2013 to 59 percent last fall, 57 percent in March of this year, and now 55 percent. The drop was expected, as Clinton transitioned from America’s top diplomat to potential Democratic presidential candidate, it said. “Secretary of State is often seen as a non-political, non-partisan kind of job, and that showed in Clinton’s favourable ratings while she ran the State Department,” Holland said. “In 2011, her favourable rating was as high as 47 percent among Republicans. Now that she seems to be running for office again, her favourables among Republicans have plummeted to 18 percent,” Holland added. PTI