Over Time, Bush Will Be Rated As A Mid Level President But Heads And Shoulders Above Obama And Carter Who Will Rank Near If Not At The Bottom

George W. Bush tops Obama on favorability in new poll

By Mark Hensch

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A new survey finds that more Americans view former President George W. Bush favorably than President Obama.

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The CNN/ORC poll reveals that 52 percent of Americans see Bush positively, while 43 percent do not.

In contrast, U.S. voters are split on their views of Obama.

The new poll finds that 49 percent view Obama favorably, while 49 percent do not.

Those ratings for Obama are down from a similar poll in March. During that sampling, 52 percent of Americans viewed him positively, while another 46 percent did not.

Bush’s numbers, meanwhile, mark a major shift for the former president since he departed office in early 2009, CNN said.

It noted that back then, Bush received a favorability rating from roughly one third of those surveyed.

Bush’s favorability, CNN added, has remained below the 50-percent threshold most of the time since his presidency.

Just one year ago, it said, the former president had a 46-percent favorability rating. Another 51 percent, however, still viewed Bush unfavorably.

Bush’s new score reflects more positive views of him across a wide variety of groups.

CNN said that the former president has notched an 11-point favorability increase among men, a 10-point increase among Republicans and an 8-point increase among suburbanites.

He also saw his favorability increase 10 points among those with household incomes under $50,000 and 9 points among young adults under age 50.

CNN said that Bush still remains the least popular among Democrats, liberals, non-whites and those under age 35.

Despite this, its poll found increasing warmth for the former president among some of those groups.

Approximately 70 percent of Democrats view Bush unfavorably, a decrease from February, 2009, when 85 percent took a negative view of him.

In addition, 68 percent of liberals still view the former president negatively, an improvement from the 90 percent who disliked his administration in February 2009.

CNN/ORC surveyed 1,025 adults from May 29-31 via telephone for its latest poll. It has a 3-percentage0point margin of error.