WASHINGTON DC (CNN)
-- On the day that
President-elect
Barack Obama is
visiting the White
House, a new
national poll
suggests that the
current occupant at
1600 Pennsylvania
Avenue is the most
unpopular president
since approval
ratings were first
sought more than six
decades ago.
President
Bush
has
the
lowest
presidential
approval
rating
in
the
history
of
such
polling.
Seventy-six percent
of those questioned
in a CNN/Opinion
Research Corporation
survey released
Monday disapprove of
how President Bush
is handling his job.
That's an all-time
high in CNN polling
and in Gallup
polling dating back
to World War II.
"No other
president's
disapproval rating
has gone higher than
70 percent. Bush has
managed to do that
three times so far
this year," says CNN
polling director
Keating Holland.
"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."
Before
Bush,
the record holder
for presidential
disapproval was
Harry Truman, with a
67 percent
disapproval rating
in January of 1952,
his last full year
in office.
As Obama visits the
White House to start
the transition from
the Bush
administration to an
Obama
administration, 57
percent of those
questioned think the
transfer of power
will be relatively
easy and free from
tension, with 39
percent saying the
transition will be
difficult.
"A majority say that
the transition from
Bush to
Obama
will go smoothly,
although nearly one
in four predict a
lot of tension
between Bush aides
and Obama aides in
the next few weeks.
That sentiment is
highest among
Democrats, but even
among them, a
majority believes
that the transition
will be relatively
easy," Holland said.
The CNN/Opinion
Research Corporation
poll was conducted
Thursday through
Sunday with 1,246
adult Americans
questioned by
telephone. The
survey's sampling
error is plus or
minus 3 percentage
points.
