You know how Democrats supposedly love George W Bush now and Republicans have totally abandoned him?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Yeah actually it looks like that talking point is total malarkey.

https://twitter.com/YouGovAmerica/status/1420027025931264002?s=19
https://twitter.com/YouGovAmerica/status/1420027010286596096?s=19
Yes the 36% favorability amongst Democrats for him is pathetic but he's still well underwater amongst Democrats and a top ten President amongst Republicans. Really pokes holes in that Greenwald/jfern "argument" that anyone who criticizes Trump or supported his impeachments is a Bush-loving hypocrite.

Also worth noting he's the President with the third worst favorable/unfavorable delta overall after Nixon and Trump.

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

How in the world is Trump and Dubya more popular than Biden with independents?

[Progressive Pessimist]

How long before Trump exhumes the corpses of Lincoln, Reagan, and Washington out of spite?

How in the world is Trump and Dubya more popular than Biden with independents?

I really hope this poll is faulty now.

[Matty]

34% of democrats approve of George bush

Simply because he doesn’t like trump

That is ridiculous.

George Bush was a bottom 5 president. He doesn’t deserve 34% approval among dems

[Ferguson97]

34% of democrats approve of George bush

Simply because he doesn’t like trump

That is ridiculous.

George Bush was a bottom 5 president. He doesn’t deserve 34% approval among dems

He doesn't, this is a trash poll

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

How long before Trump exhumes the corpses of Lincoln, Reagan, and Washington out of spite?

How in the world is Trump and Dubya more popular than Biden with independents?

I really hope this poll is faulty now.

The independent sample is probably right-leaning, see how Biden is at 47% favorability and only +3 over unfavorable when he's at about +8 in all approval polls.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Putin warned Bush W about Bin Laden, he put Bin Laden family on an airplane after 911, he botched Hurricane Katrina that's why Ds slaughtered Rs in 2006/2008/ I never liked Bush W and he passed a Giant tax cut for the wealthy

[GeneralMacArthur]

As the owner of the official Atlas presidential ranking, this is very interesting to me.

The rankings as presented by the tweet are not very good.  They're in descending order of popularity, but that's heavily biased towards the more well-known presidents.  So Trump, who has a 39-54 approval split, is tied with James Madison, who sits at a much more respectable 39-9.  Really you should do it by ratio and ignore anyone who can't form an opinion.  Just because nobody's heard of poor, virtuous Chester A. Arthur doesn't mean he was a bad president -- in fact I think most historians would agree he was an above average president and an upstanding guy!

When you sort by Approve / (Approve + Disapprove), basically the ratio ignoring undecideds, you get this list:
Lincoln 91.9%
Washington 89.7%
J.Q. Adams 86.3%
Eisenhower 84.1%
JFK 83.9%
Teddy 83.8%
Madison 81.3%
Adams 80.7%
Jefferson 80.5%
LBJ 80.4%
Truman 78.5%
FDR 78.5%
Grant 74.6%
Monroe 70.7%
Reagan 63.5%
Garfield 58.9%
Carter 58.4%
Ford 57.7%
Taylor 57.7%
Obama 56.8%
McKinley 56.7%
Wilson 56.1%
Coolidge 55.8%
Hayes 54.5%
Jackson 53.9%
WHH 53.3%
Clinton 51.7%
Ben Harrison 51.7%
Biden 51.6%
HW Bush 50%
W Bush 50%
Taft 50%
Van Buren 50%
Johnson 48.9%
Pierce 48.3%
Tyler 48.1%
Arthur 48%
Cleveland 45.6%
Hoover 45.6%
Polk 45.2%
Fillmore 44%
Trump 41.9%
Buchanan 40%
Harding 37.8%
Nixon 32.1%

Some interesting notes:

For some reason, everyone loves the Adamses, even though both were mediocre-to-bad presidents.

With the exception of the Adamses, the elite tier is fairly conventional.  Lincoln, Washington, Eisenhower, JFK, Teddy, Madison, Jefferson, LBJ, Truman, FDR, Grant, Monroe.  So you've got the 4 Rushmore presidents, FDR (a little lower than usual, but he has a dedicated cadre of conservatives who hate him), our strong run of mid-20th century presidents with Truman/Ike/JFK/LBJ, our two solid founding fathers Madison/Monroe, and Grant who has been getting a lot of love lately.  Doubt anyone would really argue with that.

How can you "not have an opinion" on some of these people?  25% no opinion of FDR?  18% no opinion of Washington?  11% no opinion of Lincoln?  Who are these 4% of people who still have no opinion of Trump?

The disgusting and disgraceful historical rehabilitation of George W Bush, one of the worst presidents in history, continue.  He now sits at 50%, tied with his dad.  Folks, W was a terrible president.  Please see my other thread where I listed the top 10 worst things Bush ever did.

Trump's deeply-underwater 39/54 split sends him straight to the bottom, next to Buchanan, Harding and Nixon.  Both Buchanan and Harding have at different points been considered the worst president of all time.  I earnestly hope and believe that Trump will continue to decline as more Republicans come to their senses, as opposed to the sickening rehabilitation W is receiving.

Nixon is interesting because I think most people would say he was a better president than the truly deplorable villains like Trump, Buchanan, Johnson, etc., there's not really a lot of folks running around with a positive opinion of him.  Just about everyone knows that Nixon was a bad guy, and he's much more notorious than someone like Andrew Johnson, thus earning him the basement position.  Similarly, I think most would agree that JFK wasn't a GOAT president, but pretty much everyone, regardless of political affiliation, has fond memories of JFK.  What kind of asshole do you have to be to dislike JFK?  C'mon.

More Americans need to read their history books.  James K. Polk was an excellent president and I'm not sure why so many folks have negative opinions of him.  Andrew Johnson was an abysmal president and person, and I don't know why anyone would have a positive opinion of him.  I also don't know why so many people like Rutherford B. Hayes, the worst of a bad run of late-1800s presidents.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The disgusting and disgraceful historical rehabilitation of George W Bush, one of the worst presidents in history, continue.  He now sits at 50%, tied with his dad.  Folks, W was a terrible president.  Please see my other thread where I listed the top 10 worst things Bush ever did.

Wait what?!!! But you criticize Trump and support Biden! That obviously makes you a neocon shill who totally loves George W. Bush because jfern and Glenn Greenwald told me! /s

[darklordoftech]

The disgusting and disgraceful historical rehabilitation of George W Bush, one of the worst presidents in history, continue.  He now sits at 50%, tied with his dad.  Folks, W was a terrible president.  Please see my other thread where I listed the top 10 worst things Bush ever did.

Wait what?!!! But you criticize Trump and support Biden! That obviously makes you a neocon shill who totally loves George W. Bush because jfern and Glenn Greenwald told me! /s

In spite of what Glenn Greenwald claims, Trump is more of a neocon than the Clintons or Obama. Obama negotiated the Iran Deal while Trump pulled out of it and assassinated Solemeini.

[GeneralMacArthur]

The disgusting and disgraceful historical rehabilitation of George W Bush, one of the worst presidents in history, continue.  He now sits at 50%, tied with his dad.  Folks, W was a terrible president.  Please see my other thread where I listed the top 10 worst things Bush ever did.

Wait what?!!! But you criticize Trump and support Biden! That obviously makes you a neocon shill who totally loves George W. Bush because jfern and Glenn Greenwald told me! /s

Neoconservatism is bad but saying Bush was bad because he was a neocon is a huge oversimplification.  W is bad because he chose to lie his way into a war, failed at that war, and then used torture as a weapon of war.  Doesn't really matter whether or not that war was motivated by neoconservative principles... he was just straight awful in a very non-ideological way.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The disgusting and disgraceful historical rehabilitation of George W Bush, one of the worst presidents in history, continue.  He now sits at 50%, tied with his dad.  Folks, W was a terrible president.  Please see my other thread where I listed the top 10 worst things Bush ever did.

Wait what?!!! But you criticize Trump and support Biden! That obviously makes you a neocon shill who totally loves George W. Bush because jfern and Glenn Greenwald told me! /s

Neoconservatism is bad but saying Bush was bad because he was a neocon is a huge oversimplification.  W is bad because he chose to lie his way into a war, failed at that war, and then used torture as a weapon of war.  Doesn't really matter whether or not that war was motivated by neoconservative principles... he was just straight awful in a very non-ideological way.

This is true...and it's also true that neoconservativism is a sh!t ideology. I've said before that it's like taking all the worst aspects of every ideology into a blender and creating one awful sh!t of a blend.

That said it's an essentially extinct ideology so everyone should stop worrying about it and talk about it only in a historical context.

(No, Tom Cotton is not a neocon. He's just a normal Republican who is more vocally hawkish and authoritarian than most. And he will never be President.)

[darklordoftech]

The disgusting and disgraceful historical rehabilitation of George W Bush, one of the worst presidents in history, continue.  He now sits at 50%, tied with his dad.  Folks, W was a terrible president.  Please see my other thread where I listed the top 10 worst things Bush ever did.

Wait what?!!! But you criticize Trump and support Biden! That obviously makes you a neocon shill who totally loves George W. Bush because jfern and Glenn Greenwald told me! /s

Neoconservatism is bad but saying Bush was bad because he was a neocon is a huge oversimplification.  W is bad because he chose to lie his way into a war, failed at that war, and then used torture as a weapon of war.  Doesn't really matter whether or not that war was motivated by neoconservative principles... he was just straight awful in a very non-ideological way.

And he appointed teenager-torturer Mel Sembler to be Ambassador to Italty.

[President Johnson]

Lyndon Johnson is way underrated.

[darklordoftech]

It’s quite something how Fox News went from “Bush is the second coming of Jesus” to “Bush was a Clintonite”.

[MillennialModerate]

Lyndon Johnson is way underrated.

No he isn’t. Domestically he did a great job of passing the Kennedy agenda. But you can’t just not count Vietnam. That ripped the country apart at the time

[MillennialModerate]

Similarly, I think most would agree that JFK wasn't a GOAT president

GOAT? No. Great? Yes. But again, GOAT? .. Only Lincoln, FDR and maybe Washington can be called GOATS. I think JFK would’ve gotten there with 2 full terms but that’s a lot of WHAT IF’s.

What kind of asshole do you have to be to dislike JFK?  C'mon.

That’s what I’m saying. But there is an embarrassing amount of people who have that stance on this site

[GeneralMacArthur]

Similarly, I think most would agree that JFK wasn't a GOAT president

GOAT? No. Great? Yes. But again, GOAT? .. Only Lincoln, FDR and maybe Washington can be called GOATS. I think JFK would’ve gotten there with 2 full terms but that’s a lot of WHAT IF’s.

What kind of asshole do you have to be to dislike JFK?  C'mon.

That’s what I’m saying. But there is an embarrassing amount of people who have that stance on this site

I give JFK a solid 7 or 8/10 but I would put at least ten presidents above him.  He just wasn't that impactful at the end of the day.

[ProudModerate2]

There has been some level of "acceptance" by Dems after he left office, but I would never describe it as "love."

[OSR stands with Israel]

The disgusting and disgraceful historical rehabilitation of George W Bush, one of the worst presidents in history, continue.  He now sits at 50%, tied with his dad.  Folks, W was a terrible president.  Please see my other thread where I listed the top 10 worst things Bush ever did.

While George W Bush was certainly an incompetent president and his foreign policy results were pretty disastrous, you could definitely say that his leadership after 9/11 was excellent and it helped unite the nation which is what many people may remember W for .


Also W was someone who you could say made you proud to be an American which is why he is liked as well

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

The disgusting and disgraceful historical rehabilitation of George W Bush, one of the worst presidents in history, continue.  He now sits at 50%, tied with his dad.  Folks, W was a terrible president.  Please see my other thread where I listed the top 10 worst things Bush ever did.

While George W Bush was certainly an incompetent president and his foreign policy results were pretty disastrous, you could definitely say that his leadership after 9/11 was excellent and it helped unite the nation which is what many people may remember W for .


Also W was someone who you could say made you proud to be an American which is why he is liked as well

That's because he was held unaccounted for when he was briefed and warned about Bin Laden determined to strike within the United States

Kean Sr refused to call Bush W out and Putin said he warned Bush W about Bin Laden and he went on vacation anyways, the military pulled together after 911

The D's were in the minority in the 911 Commission, Jean Sr wanted bipartisanship, not a partisan Commission, that's why he was rewarded


If Gore Jr would have went on vacation and was briefed before 911 Dennis Hassert and the 911 Commission would have voted for impeachment

[brucejoel99]

There has been some level of "acceptance" by Dems after he left office, but I would never describe it as "love."

And it's earned: PEPFAR, for one, arguably saved millions of lives & is something that I think many people unfairly forget. I mean, if W. gets the blame for all of the bad stuff that his presidency stuck us with, then he should get the praise for the undeniably good things that he did in office too. I remember being surprised to read that Bono - who was notoriously active in his opposition to Iraq - is now friends with W. & has praised him for doing more to stop AIDS in Africa than any other world leader in history. You normally don't associate that sort of thing with a modern GOP president, yet here we are.

[GeneralMacArthur]

Also W was someone who you could say made you proud to be an American which is why he is liked as well

George W Bush made the entire rest of the world hate America.  He's surpassed in that regard only by Trump.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Also W was someone who you could say made you proud to be an American which is why he is liked as well

George W Bush made the entire rest of the world hate America.  He's surpassed in that regard only by Trump.

I mean the EU deserved the hate Bush gave them , and it’s ironic that a liberal leader went along with Bush FP wise while conservative leaders in Europe didn’t lol.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

The reason why most Rs when they run for Prez as many opposed to being out of office Bush H, Bob Dole, Ford, Bush W, Romney and McCain are viewed more disfavor able, is due to fact theyre tied to the R Leadership, Boehner caused Romney to loose, Romney wasn't disliked until he captured the R Nomination, samething with Trump he upset Hillary he was viewed more favorable, but let's all realize that R Congress have had 15% since 2000 eventhough due to Gerrymandering they have won 16/20 Elections in the H the only branch of Govt they have been able to hold onto


Samething with the Bushes they are viewed more favorable now, due to the fact he doesn't have R Congressional leadership to pull down his polls, that's why there is a shift, same with Reagan

Boehner was the most unpopular Speaker in modern popitics, that's why Romney is viewed now than he ran for Prez as a McCain Maverick, he doesn't have unpopular Speaker