To be fair, it seems to me like politicians in general have lower favourables now than historically. But that still doesn't excuse Romney of course.
Naw, it's just Romney.
Has anyone polled Bush lately? I found a CNN poll from September where he was 42-53, which is comparable to Romney's numbers.
Here is how Bush does today:
BTW: George W. Bush has a 45-50 favorable rating these days, according to the poll - among all voters.
For the record I didn't really mean individual politicians over time - I admit my wording was a bit unclear.
I may be wrong but it is my impression that public level of trust in politicians has gone down in general over the last few decades. That's certainly true here, at least.
Romney is being compared mainly to presidential nominees from the last decade and a half or so in this thread, though, so his awful popularity rates within that context can't be blamed on any sort of political conjuncture.