D'uh! Bush Way Worse Than Nixon

Let's hope by now you've seen our President's Day cover story by Jay Tolson heralding the 10 worst presidents of all time (Jay looks only at presidents whose terms are finished), and our online poll with viewers voting for the worst presidents in history, including the current incumbent. At press time, George W. Bush was handily leading the pack in our poll, with twice as many votes as the runner-up, Richard Nixon.

For those tempted to think the anti-Bush vote is an aberration, now comes John Zogby with a much more scientific sampling to tell us that Bush is considered by voters the biggest presidential failure in the past 60 years. His failure rating: 30.2 percent, far more than Nixon's 23 percent. Zogby's polling asks voters simply to rate the presidents as great, near great, average, below average, and failure. We'll just focus on the "great" and "failure" ratings for presidents since FDR.

Roosevelt: 58.7 percent said he was great, making him the greatest in modern history. Just .02 percent called him a failure. Truman: 26.5 percent great, 0.5 percent failure. Ike: 21.1 percent great, 0.1 percent failure. JFK: 43 percent great, 0.5 percent failure. LBJ: 5.9 percent great, 7.6 percent failure. Nixon: 4.5 percent great, 23 percent failure. Ford: 17.5 percent great, 0.9 percent failure.

More: Carter: 13.5 percent great, 10.2 percent failure. Reagan: 34.4 percent great, 3.7 percent failure. George H.W. Bush: 10.3 percent great, 8.2 percent failure. Clinton: 21.1 percent great, 11 percent failure.

George W. Bush: 7.9 percent great, 30.2 percent failure.

And that's not the only news. Zogby's January poll found that the older and smarter you are, the more you think Bush is a failure. The largest age group with that opinion is made up of those 50 to 64. And 32.4 percent of those with some college education think he stinks.

By Paul Bedard