Clinton's Retrospective Job Approval at 51%

Gallup News Service ^ | 4/7/02 | Frank Newport

[anniegetyourgun]

Reagan, Carter, Ford and Kennedy are seen in more positive light now than while in office; Nixon's and Johnson's retrospective ratings are worse

PRINCETON, NJ -- John F. Kennedy continues to have the highest retrospective job-approval rating of any of the last eight presidents, followed by Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson have the lowest retrospective approval ratings. Bill Clinton -- measured for the first time since leaving office -- ranks only sixth. Clinton’s retrospective approval rating is slightly lower than his overall average while he was in office, and considerably lower than his average over his second term, between 1997 and 2001.

These ratings are based on a question that asks Americans to indicate whether -- in retrospect -- they approve or disapprove of the way a president handled his job while he was in office.

[I. M. Trenchant]

The U.S. president with the clearest vision of U.S. foreign policy was Richard Nixon. Ike took one important pro-active position in his 8 years of office: when he told the U.K., France & Israel to get the hell out of Suez. To his credit, Reagan, who first voted Republican when he voted for Congressman Nixon, followed Nixon's playbook by declaring, in public, what Nixon had written (in his book The Real War) the year before the Gipper began his 8 years.

Nixon took office when U.S. stability was more tenuous than at anytime in my lifetime, and he left office having resolved all but one problem: how to deal with the shame that the Vietnam Generation had to bear for their less-than-noble behaviour in that period. In one sense, Nixon even solved that one: through his crucifixion, the Vietnam Generation was able to feel it had expiated all of its own guilt for the Vietnam debacle. History will know this and mark it.

On the other hand, JFK's abject failure to project U.S. power effectively, brought the U.S. (and the rest of the world) to the brink of nuclear war for the only time in history. Moreover, JFK's tacit agreement to Diem's assassination led to the Americanization of the Vietnam War and to more than a decade of disastrous consequences for Indochina and the U.S. History will know this and mark it too.

[stands2reason]

Did you notice that Clinton's approval rating by women was below average? Even below men...Now, don't women go for Dems usually about 10 points over men? I guess some of those feminists don't buy NOW's "one free grope" rule.

[Jeff Chandler]

Kennedy was the start of a downward spiral for America which was not reversed until Reagan. He brought in the "Best and the Brightest" ivy leaguers who hadn't a clue about the real world, and allowed them to formulate foreign policy. The Bay of Pigs was a signal to the world that the U.S. coulddn't be trusted; her word was not good. The ivy leaguers were kept on during the Johnson administration and proceeded to turn Vietnam unnecessarily into a quagmire.

[Jeff Chandler]

Nixon, through his enormous popularity, could have won the Vietnam war by taking the leash of of the military. He had all but won it with the bombing and mining of the north, but instead brokered a phoney truce which was in fact a capitulation. In that respect, he was almost as bad as Johnson. He was also responsible for a staggering amount of the liberal policies which plague this country to this very day. He was no conservative, he was just an ambitious man.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Clinton's post-presidency legacy building appears to be failing. Too bad.

9/11/01 and "I did not have sex..." are his enduring, never-to-be-forgotten legacies. His retrospective job approval will sink further, in my opinion, as more of his socially-retarded official behavior comes to light. He is a degenerate.

[Lancey Howard]

As time plods on, the people who artificailly inflated Clinton's "job approval" numbers while he was in office will gradually continue to lower their opinion of Clinton as they continue to see the decency, honor, and integrity of the current President in action.

[Timesink]

PING! Is this serendipitous or what? A day and a half after we ask "What's Clinton's approval rating now?" we get the answer straight from Gallup!

[Timesink]

and engaged in near-Hillary nepotism by appointing his brother Attorney General.

Yeah, but at least the AG is an actual position, RFK was actually qualified to hold it, and he was approved by the Senate. Queen/Co-President Hillary made her position up out of thin air, had no qualifications other than being evil, and was approved by nobody but her henpecked husband.

[Lancey Howard]

Hopefully, more women will realize that thinking doesn't give them wrinkles, and they will decide they have had enough smacking around from the scumbag Democrats with all their phoney baloney con jobs that women seem to fall for in far greater numbers than men.

[Timesink]

I agree totally. In 50 years, my guess is the rankings of these eight men will be, in decending order: Reagan, Bush 43 (assuming WWIII doesn't break out and get us all killed, but obviously I don't think that's gonna happen), Bush 41, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Johnson, and Clinton all the way at the bottom.

[Jeff Chandler]

More like: Reagan, Bush43, Bush41, Ford, Nixon, Kennedy, Carter, Clinton, Johnson.

[Timesink]

He was also responsible for a staggering amount of the liberal policies which plague this country to this very day. He was no conservative, he was just an ambitious man.

All true, but he still did a lot of good that he never gets credit for. And to be honest, given the times in which he served his term, I doubt there's any way the country would have gotten anyone less liberal. Too many people believed in liberal ideas back then, and we didn't have enough empirical evidence to prove them wrong. Now we do, and the public has been slowly waking up over the last decade or two.

[Jeff Chandler]

IMO

[Jeff Chandler]

What good?

[Timesink]

More like: Reagan, Bush43, Bush41, Ford, Nixon, Kennedy, Carter, Clinton, Johnson.

Whoops, I left Kennedy out, didn't I? Nine men, not eight. I'd put JFK between Carter and Johnson on my list. I can kind of see your list as well, but I'm not sure Ford will be held above Nixon, and certainly not Clinton above Johnson. Johnson was a lot of things, but not inherently evil. Bill Clinton was. Well, Bill's just immoral really, but combined with Queen Hillary it added up to true evil.

[Timesink]

What good?

See post 21. I agree with I. M. Trenchant's assessment of Nixon.

[Jeff Chandler]

Ford was a placeholder. Johnson was unbelieveably evil. Clinton is just pathetic. Now Hillary is evil.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Notice how "People With Reasonably Well-Functioning Brains" isn't on the bar graph?

[be131]

Kennedy can be thrown out for obvious reasons, most people couldn't tell you one thing he did good or bad, he got the votes because he was killed. Didn't Reagan's ratings go up because of the failed assassination attempt?

[Las Vegas Dave]

TYPO, should read > Clinton's Retrospective Job Approval at 15%