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Prior to this article the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute has had a very good reputation. I'm guessing after it they will be labeled as cracks and selective samplers.

Considering Romney was correct about several of the major issues that have reared its ugly head in foreign affairs, I have to wonder how many people now wish that he was directing our financial crisis as well. I know the Republicans do but how about the moderates and liberals who are now saying "I condemned Romney but turns out he was right".

Well according to this poll many people think they messed up.  It's just a silly poll but I've seen many people recanting their support in my world.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2014/07/02/obama-george-w-bush-quinnipiac-poll-reagan-clinton/11985837/

David Jackson, USA TODAY 10:47 a.m. EDT July 2, 2014

President Obama has topped predecessor George W. Bush in another poll, but not one he would like.

In a new Quinnipiac University Poll, 33% named Obama the worst president since World War II, and 28% put Bush at the bottom of post-war presidents.

"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," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

Of course, Obama and Bush are the most recent presidents; historians will tell you that it takes decades to truly measure an individual president's performance.

Ronald Reagan topped the poll as the best president since World War II, with 35%. He is followed by presidents Bill Clinton (18%) and John F. Kennedy (15%).

Obama received only 8% in the best presidents poll.

The Quinnipiac poll also reports that 45% believe the nation would be better off had Mitt Romney defeated Obama in the 2012 presidential election; 38% say the country would be worse off with a Romney presidency.

I don't think Obama's presidency has come as advertised. 

This being said, he is also working in unprecedented times.  Unless I'm mistaken, never has a president before Obama been faced the bipartisanship impacting all matters across the board.

Of course, one could also say this is due to his inability to lead - however it feels as though no leader, be it Reagan, Clinton, or insert "amazing president here" would find much common ground through compromise in today's climate.  Each party is too dug in, with the ultimate goal of not achieving a mark, or a goal, but keeping the other FROM a goal or a mark.

So yes, the last 5-6 years (and 8 years prior to this) have been...rough. 

The next president will find it's not going to be much better.

I agree with this statement, but I feel like it is BECAUSE of Obama that this phenomena is occurring.  I hate politics, so just posting in this thread makes me want to punch myself in the face, but it feel like Obama had such a radically liberal stance when he was first elected, and was SO different from GWB, that he polarized everyone.  Either you love him or you hate him.  And those that hate him are determined to make him appear as a failure.

It appears to me the the Republicans in Congress have a single goal - to oppose everything Obama says.  Just because.  To make him look foolish.  Maybe this is why he can't get anything done.

Never before (in my memory) has a president been so radically active in trying to reform systems as major as healthcare.  Who else has taken that on?  And the resistance he met along the way has been monumental. 

I can't remember another president who has been more polarizing.

I think this is due to the lockstep nature of the GOP.  They hate Obama and they love Reagan.  I'm guessing that's why those presidents were on the spectrum.  They are a lockstep type party.

For Dems, I bet their "best of list" is between Clinton, JFK, and Obama, more evenly distributed.

As far as the poll goes I don't disagree. I thought the same thing when I read it. It really isn't a secret on who Republicans think was the greatest and least.

With that said I think many people are viewing Obama less favorable than they originally had.  His foreign policy has failed over and over and it's even worse given he mocked Romney for predicting it.

i think Obama gets it from both sides for the foreign policy .. there are some republicans that think he doesn't do enough .. and some that think we should pull out of all foreign lands yesterday .. the middle road will never appeal to those people

I think this will be an interesting question to revisit in 10 years.

When you look at the legacy of a President, what tends to stand out are the major events.  I think it's fair to say that when February 2017 rolls around, all GOP and media interest in ACORN and Solyndra and Operation Fast & Furious and IRS investigations (but not Benghazi, because Hillary) will be immediately forgotten.  What we will hear about for the foreseeable future is Obamacare, and even the GOP has admitted time and time again that they must repeal it before people get used to it, or it will become just as entrenched and popular as the then-reviled Social Security and Medicare have become.

So, whether you believe Obama will be historically regarded as one of the worst presidents should be contingent on whether you believe that Obamacare is something that will be unpopular and disliked in 10 years.  If Obamacare winds up being as popular as Medicare, that name alone will exclude Obama from any "worst" lists.  (And the other factor, which may not be entirely fair, is that as the first black president, he will undoubtedly receive a huge historical bump absent any Nixon-level scandal.)

In contrast, GWB's legacy has been so toxic that Republicans still complain about the invocation of his name.  Based on the way Democrats have embraced Clinton (after he left office in "disgrace" after his impeachment by the House), do you seriously believe that Democrats will run from Obama the same way that the GOP has ran from GWB?

Long story short: GWB's legacy is not salvageable and he is still being attacked 6 years after leaving office.  All of the votes going to Obama for "worst president ever" will immediately be diverted to Hillary as soon as she takes office (just as the GOP was declaring Obama the worst president in history (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG08nR475s4) by the first midterm).

Sadly, to this day, I wonder how many of his detractors see this phrase and have already decided that he is horrible.  I don't know any personally, but I'm know they exist in places like northern Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas, etc. - not surprisingly dominantly red states in the past 2 elections.

You don't even need to get to North Florida. You can find it by the time you reach Central Florida (and yes I have heard it straight out of people's mouths).

^^ Right.  Some people use policy and issues to mask what they really feel.  Unfortunately, we live in a world where that's enough to make people dislike you.

One more thing:

It is accurate to say that no president has faced this kind of opposition; however, it is not accurate to say that "both sides do it" or that GWB faced similar opposition during his 8 years.  For example:

(http://tcf.org/assets/images/blog_images/20121130-graph-why-we-need-filibuster-reform.png)

(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6073/6104298712_67e182c4b1.jpg)

The GOP is far more obstinate than the Democrats and it is simply wrong to claim otherwise.

Would you also categorize Hillary Clinton as "radically liberal"?
In what substantive ways was Obama different than Hillary during the 2008 campaign?

The idea that Obama is a "radical liberal" is only true from the point of view of today's rapidly-right-shifting GOP.  Their biggest bogeyman, Obamacare, is a conservative plan that was proposed by conservative groups in the '90s and passed by a Republican governor in MA.

VT Senator Bernie Sanders is a "radical liberal."
Campaign Obama was a moderate liberal, and President Obama is a corporatist centrist.

Obama is garbage, he will be ranked in the area of Carter when all is said and done. Bush had his issues and problems and will be ranked somewhere down around both of them. However, I have learned that Bush was nowhere near as bad as the left makes him out to be and Obama is nowhere near as good as the left makes him out to be. The Obama presidency has been an utter failure, but lets just blame everyone else for his failures and incompetence. Yeah, sure it's all Bush's fault 6 years after he left office. "Fellow Americans. the republicans won't let me do anything". What happens if the republicans take the senate and hold the house? Who's he going to blame then? The voters? I wouldn't doubt it.

The left says, It's not Obama's fault, he inherited all of this mess. I don't think he inherited shit, he campaigned and begged for it with hope, change, and lies. He wanted the monumental task of fixing things and now that he's a failure and seat warmer president, he's complaining that "it's their fault" while pointing at everyone except himself. Well it doesn't work like that, HE is in the position of responsibility, therefore he alone is responsible for the outcome of his presidency that he begged the American people for. Everyone can try to dismiss his disapproval ratings to make themselves feel or look better, but the majority of America knows better.

pondwater, what do you believe the public will think about Obamacare 10 years from now?
Do you believe that, as many conservatives have publicly warned, once it is in place and entrenched no politician would dare repeal it (like Social Security and Medicare today)?

I don't think Obamacare will be around 10 years from now in it's current form.
No, I think that it will fail on it's own. It's a poorly implemented program that has many financial struggles and legal battles ahead. Many of which haven't even been thought of yet.

I also don't think Obamacare will be around 10 years from now. I do accounting work for a company of around 120 people and when the new insurance premiums came in, I almost had to lock myself in my office from the onslaught of rage, and that was just from 10 people. Can't wait until January when people see how much their definition of affordable differs from the President's.

It is a skewed poll because it concerns active and former presidents. All presidents see a bump up in their polls and popularity after they leave office. This bump up seems to go up after they die. So we will have to see how Obama is viewed in eight years or so.
While this is being shot around the interwebs at light speed, the current approval ratings show Obama hovering around 40%.

Do you think it will be around in a form that is still called Obamacare?  Because if it is, the idea that it will be the boat anchor for Obama's legacy (as many conservatives currently seem to believe) is not realistic.  It's like expecting LBJ's legacy to be ruined by the fact that he signed Medicare into law.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that Republicans believe Obamacare is his single biggest blunder.  It has been their primary uniting cause since it was passed.  If so, that would mean that history's evaluation of Obama necessarily hinges on history's evaluation of Obamacare.  And it would be easier to believe conservatives' claims about how destructive and oppressive Obamacare is if they were not already on the record saying exactly the same things about Social Security and Medicare when they were passed.  The Gipper himself rose to fame from his record (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bejdhs3jGyw) claiming that Medicare would bring a socialist dictatorship to America.

Do you believe it will be repealed outright?  I think the amount of rage that would result from that would be significantly worse.

Well you guys can wait 10 years for Obama to die and obamacare to crash and burn to evaluate his success. Me and the majority of America will judge him now and until he leaves office. Hell, this country very well could crash and burn in 10 years.

Just because a presidents popularity goes up many years after he leaves office or dies only means that people easilly forget or are too young to have lived through it. Carter is not a better president now than he was when he was actually in office, that's silly. Obama will be ranked in the bottom 25% of all presidents. Probably on par with Bush, like it or not.

Is this the poll that consisted of " 73 percent whites, 61 percent Midwesterners and Southerners, and 56 percent land-line users"? I REPEAT: LAND LINE USERS.

Nah...that's not skewed at all. That is a great cross section of our diverse country.

Source:  http://www.quinnipiac.edu/images/polling/us/us07022014_crosstabs_U73jabn.pdf

i like obamacare .. i think it's great

Don't get the land line user thing. Are middle-aged/old/rich white people the only ones to keep a land line? I keep one just so I don't have to take bill calls or solicitors on my cell. I get all my BS calls at home and have one number to associate the family with.

Not only, but statistically, much more likely, yes.

I don't know anyone under 35 who has a land line.

I could have bumped that number even more. Before I realized CF had one I only knew of people in their 60's with land lines.

Under 35 and I do. I never answer it because it's always telemarketers. Came with my cable package.

O'Rly. It's seems your views are not congruent from month to month. Or you are just trying to support a leftist agenda at any expense. Your choice, either one works.



 

tldr - Ya Rly

i signed up for the exchange in feb 2014 for the wife and kid.  through the marketplace we pay 325 / month (with no government help) for a gold level HMO ..

to add them to my HMO at work it would have cost 900/month additional

so obamacare is directly saving me almost $600 / month
 
This is the problem with obamacare for republicans .. i disliked the law because it wasn't leftist ENOUGH .. but it's much better than what we had before .. which was nothing.

That is exactly my point!

Obama is still in office now, so most conservatives aren't going to say Carter (their normal choice) was the worst president; there's no political hay to make from saying that.  Obama will be the "worst president ever" until Hillary takes office, at which point she will immediately become the "worst president ever" until she leaves office.

When it's all said and done, Bush will definitely be looking up at Carter and might be looking up at Nixon and Hoover.  By 2006, no one was talking about any of the Clinton "scandals" and his image was almost completely recovered; in contrast, Bush's name is still poison even in the GOP, and in spite of conservative cries to the contrary, a plurality (http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2014/images/02/06/rel3e.pdf) of Americans still hold Bush more responsible for blowing up the economy than Obama for failing to fix it fast enough (and this is in a poll with 70% land line users!).

I did have one that cable provided (it was cheaper to have the phone than not.)  I literally never answered the phone or used it for any reason.  When the plan expired, I sent the phone back.

I could be wrong, but I was under the assumption that if insurance was available to you and your dependants through your employer that you had to use it instead of the marketplace. Anyhow, you're saving 2/3's on your insurance by going through the marketplace. You do realize that there are people who's policy has doubled or tripled in order for you to save that $600. Why do you feel that it's a good thing for you to benefit by penalizing others? What makes you think that you deserve it?

This is the primary reason that this whole ponzi scheme is going to crumble upon itself. My insurance went up a considerable amount. My $227 a month increase doesn't matter to you when you are saving $600. I guess they can raise the rate for 3 families @ $227 per month to cover your savings. Wonder what's going to happen when the employee mandate kicks in?

The marketplace is a free market .. insurance companies set their own prices .. don't blame me because an insurance company has a better price than  another. You should instead celebrate the free market capitalism involved in the marketplaces.

if your insurance price went up . .change insurance companies . .you have that option, use it.

I truly don't know anyone of any age that keeps a landline. If I need to give out a fake number or something that I don't want to answer I give out my Google number.

 

You always have the option to use the marketplace.

Do you mean people like this 56-year-old woman (http://www.mediaite.com/tv/fox-news-greta-van-susteren-out-journalisms-cbs-news-on-florida-womans-junk-insurance/), who was paying $54/month for "coverage" that covered hospitalization only in the case of pregnancy and paid only $50 towards doctor's visits?

To answer your question, the reason why we think we should "penalize" others by having a certain minimum standard for health insurance is because when those people with substandard health insurance get sick and their insurance doesn't cover them, we're going to be paying for it anyway.  Unless you're proposing that we start turning people away at emergency rooms unless they pay up front?

Without getting into the specifics of your particular situation, it seems like every time some conservative complains about an increase in their health insurance plan, one or more of the following is true:

a) they had a cheap plan with coverage so minimal that it would have effectively done nothing in the case of serious illness or injury
b) they did not price compare and see if better options are available (which is puzzling for a political group who are normally in favor of market competition)
c) they deliberately ignore or refuse to accept the available tax credits that would lower the cost of their plan (even though they happily accept other tax credits like mortgage interest deduction)

I leave it to the reader to consider the possible motivation behind actions b) and c).

I keep a landline for my fax machine, home alarm, and to give to telemarketers and people I don't want to talk to.

Fax machine? How retro.

I talked to someone with a fax machine the other day and was shocked. The quality is crap. Scan the document and then e-mail it. It is 2012 after all  ;)

Yeah, I pretty much figured that the moment that we learned how to scan and send images by email was the moment that the fax machine became obsolete.

I haven't had a true landline since I ran my small internet publication business from home around 15 years ago.

I don't receive faxes, I send them.  And I do so for the same reason that I still buy stamps: I don't necessarily want to argue with someone about how they should accept something I'm trying to send them.

Um.. time for a new calender.

Fax machines are considered more secure than email.  There are is some data that my company prohibits me to send by email that I am allowed to fax (but only if the receiver is standing by the fax machine waiting for it to be received. )

Many government agencies only use faxes as email is public records.  Sounds like it's deceptive but it actually protects the public they are serving.

We're way off topic. Let's bring it back around or close this out.

We have a "landline", but its just a VOIP system(Ooma) that we pay $4 a month for and doesn't use the traditional twisted pair lines. When your kids have friends calling them to play it helps to have a separate family line than the friends calling your cell phone.

I think the "land line users" thing wasn't to illustrate a demographic, but just a way to methodize the polling process.  I think they can cold-call land lines for a survey but not cell phones because of the payment schedule.  So, the telephone survey yielded the "land line users" result.

Correct.  However, this skews results, as land line user demographics are not the same as US Citizen demographics.

For the most part, "land line users" is going to skew towards the ancient, or unreasonably paranoid people like myself (I don't like putting all my eggs in the cellphone basket).

Since Republicans (notably: Fox News viewers) also skew ancient, that indicates a potential bias.