Nixon was pre-Republican control of the major media outlets.
The Media called Nixon out on his criminal conduct. The newly IOKIYAR Media has yet to do the same for Bush

"In fact, the Nixon comparison is illustrative in its severity. Nixon, exposed as a criminal and in the midst of becoming the only president to ever resign from office in disgrace, was 10 points more popular than Bush is now. (CNN released a handy chart on the subject.)"

Actually, Bush has been exposed as a criminal, but he hasn't been impeached or convicted or punished...YET. And BuzzMon, the MSM has revealed a lot about the Bush administration which is both criminal and unconstitutional. It's the Congress that has done nothing about it, including Pelosi making that assinine statement in 2006 about impeachment "being off the table."

I actually wonder how much of Bush's unpopularity is due to the fact that people know he's never going to receive any real kind of punishment for the things he's done. Perhaps if impeachment hearings had started before his popularity had dropped into the sewer, he'd be getting more sympathy from the folks who voted for him twice but don't like what's happened in the last 2-3 years.

I also wonder if Nixon had the benefit of not being in power when his party lost the election. Bush has the "honor" of being the guy that everyone who is actually thinking about it blames for Republicans losing the government this year. Nixon never got that while he was in office - the loss to the Dems happened long after he'd shuffled of the scene.

Then there's also the fact that Nixon actually had some good accomplishments during his tenure in office (the EPA, normalizing relations with China). Bush has few things that anyone can point to to say "this is why the man is getting a bum rap". That probably doesn't help him much either.

Wait, does this mean that 24% of the population thinks Bush is doing a GOOD job? I find that even more difficult to believe.

Find a bigger table, lets get this party started.

"That means that Bush is now more unpopular than Richard Nixon was when he resigned from office during Watergate with a 66 percent disapproval rating."

This is especially noteworthy because, as BuzzMon notes, Nixon was pre-GOP control of the MSM, and also because the Nixon-era Congress and electorate lacked the extreme polarization we see today.

Given that half of Congress and--what is the number, 28-32%?--of voters could be counted on to defend Bush no matter what he did these past eight years, it takes some freaking doing to hit a rating this bad.

For what it's worth, Nixon did have a couple thngs going for him. He began diplomacy with China, ended the draft, and although he never actually ended the Viet Nam war, he began the process. Bush would be hard pressed to come up with a real success, except to billionaires and abortion foes.

One of the worst mistakes ever in the history of this country was Ford's pardon of Nixon. It set up a direct path to GW Bush.

I suspect that if Bush were to confess to even some of his crimes - shredding the constitution, illegal wire taps on the population, and conducting an illegal invasion on on-going occupation of Iraq (to name just three) - his approval rating would actually increase. His present state of denial is probably the result of legal advice but it is increasingly isolating him.

Another question in relation to this: who could approve of Bush - what sort of collection of retards make up the 30 percent of the population who think he's doing a good job?

I wouldn't be surprised if, as more people see of the calm, thoughtful, well-spoken, and generally competent Obama, the more Bush's approval rating will continue to decline. Sometimes it's hard to know just how bad something is until you have a valid substitute for comparison. Now we have that.

impeachcheneythenbush:

You are right, but the Media exposure is more like section E, page 23, three inches of text rather than front page, above the fold.

Hell, the USA firing scandal would have died without even a whimper without the bloggers.

Meanwhile, Rush, Sean, & Bill O get tons of press, right-wingnuts get most of the new hirings (i.e. CNN), and Congress (as you stated) won't budge without front page news firing the people up.

A more interesting chart would be beginning, high point, low point, and close.

I think NonyNony and rdb have got it covered. Bush's popularity is so low because some of the dead-enders don't feel like they need to prop him up any more, and Obama is likely to make Bush look even worse in the future by comparison.

Mike

Nixon, exposed as a criminal...

both Nixon and bush were exposed as criminals while in office as POTUS. The main difference in the two is that Nixon had enough integrity left as a person to resign from his trusted position of honor bestowed by the American people. No such luck from bush, as criminal-in-chief and his merry administration of criminals, who continue to deny that he/they did anything wrong in bald faced contradiction of being caught and what the plain language of the law requires. Instead, the bush criminals and their republican co-conspirators manhandled unpatriotic Congresspersons into changing the laws to fit their crimes.

In addition to the different responses to being caught, I'd add that Nixon's crimes were less serious than the criminal bush administrations.

So with Nixon: less serious crime begats the correct response based on integrity.

With the twisted character imps of the bush administration, you get stonewalling and changing laws in response to their criminal conduct.
.

"You never know what your history is going to be like until long after you're gone." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., May 5, 2006

I'd say we are watching his legacy unravel, right before our eyes.

The guy says catching a 7.5 pound bass was the highlight of his presidency.

?

both Nixon and bush were exposed as criminals while in office as POTUS. The main difference in the two is that Nixon had enough integrity left as a person to resign from his trusted position of honor bestowed by the American people. Posted by: pluege

WTF? Nixon didn't jump, he was pushed. Had he not resigned, he most surely would have been convicted. Bush, however, was never in peril even though what he's done to the country is many degrees more dastardly. At this point, it hardly matters. We can only hope that he, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, Feith, Powell, et at, die extremely painful deaths but not before making full confessions of all their sins against the country.

No. The main difference between then and now is that 90% of the Rethugs in Congress today are scum just like Shrub and 70% of the Dems lack spine.

The main difference in the two is that Nixon had enough integrity left as a person to resign from his trusted position of honor bestowed by the American people

Ridiculous. Nixon calculated the odds of surviving a Senate trial up until the day before he resigned, when Barry Goldwater and Hugh Scott went to the White House to make the man face facts. He even called George Wallace to ask his help in keeping the southern Democrats from abandoning him. Nixon resigned only after realizing that out of 100 senators, he had only four firm votes left. If he'd had more Republican support, he'd have accepted impeachment and fought until the bitter end, because...

(Nixon) had the fighting instincts of a badger trapped by hounds. The badger will roll over on its back and emit a smell of death, which confuses the dogs and lures them in for the traditional ripping and tearing action. But it is usually the badger who does the ripping and tearing. It is a beast that fights best on its back: rolling under the throat of the enemy and seizing it by the head with all four claws.

--Hunter S. Thompson

Nixon's only crime is narcissism. If he hadn't taped everything, he would be considered up there with Reagan. The tapes forced him to resign so he could keep them as personal property.

Bush at least had/has Cheney around telling him to delete, shred, delete, shred. Who cares if we are missing 4 years of presidential archives which is a direct reflection of his own legacy.

After Watergate, Nixon managed to refurbish his reputation a bit, and he always had a sharp mind ... not that it excuses his trangressions. He was a nerd and a policy wonk that let himself be consumed with paranoia. However, he managed to be part of the American political process for over 40 years, if you count his post-refurbishing contributions. And he actually wrote books.

Bush, on the other hand, is a thug who appeared on the political scene in 1994 and will shuffle off the stage in early 2009, and who lacks both the desire and the intellectual fire power to rework his legacy. His stink will follow him for all of his days.

Nixon's only crime is narcissism. If he hadn't taped everything, he would be considered up there with Reagan. The tapes forced him to resign so he could keep them as personal property.

Jaw-droppingly stupid. Nixon ordered the CIA to tell the FBI not to investigate criminal acts committed by members of his administration. He paid hush money to the Watergate burglars to cover up his complicity in Watergate and to conceal the break-in at Daniel Ellsburg's psychiatrist's office. He attempted to overthrow the rule of law by firing special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox, defied the courts by refusing to hand over the tapes, and repeatedly lied to the American people about every aspect of Watergate.

His biggest lie came on the evening of November 17, 1973, when he told a group of Associated Press editors in a televised question-and answer session: "I'm not a crook."

Nixon went to his grave believing he'd committed no crimes, because, as he told David Frost in 1977, it was his belief that "when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal."

Shouldn't that be millstone as in millstone around the neck of the Republican party.

Spirit of 76! Way to go, Dubyo!

Posted by: Jeff II on November 10, 2008 at 4:46 PM | PERMALINK

--Hunter S. Thompson
Posted by: Screamin' Demon on November 10, 2008 at 5:01 PM | PERMALINK

Absolutely correct. My comment was stupid. I knew it as soon I pushed "Post". I apologize for the momentary stupid. I agree Nixon was an a-hole scum of first degree at least equal to the squalid putrid fecal matter that has occupied the White House for the last 8 years.