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This is an interesting chart about modern-age U.S. presidential ratings during their time in office:http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-presapp0605-31.html
It is intersting but what is even more intersting to me is that approval ratings have little relation to the judgment history passes on presidents. Approval ratings express the sentiment of the mob but I am not convinced they have much grounding in objective reality. If we know one thing it is that people are capricious and opinions change daily and in an irrational manner. If anything the approval ratings reflect the success of the media in influencing public opninion negativelly or positively towards a president.
You are right, which makes looking at the approval ratings even more interesting. Notice how Eisenhower had one of the highest ratings at the end of his time in office? He gets barely a mention now. Nixon, on the other hand, ended with a rating in the mid-20s, but I think that time has helped rehabilitate his image. And from what I understand, history had helped mend Truman's image after his term-ending rating of just over 30%.
Your points just lend weight to my contention that History will be kind to Bush. He is not as evil as the contemporary media would have us believe. It is the same as Louis XVI was not as evil as the French Revolutionaries made him out to be. Weak and vacillating yes, evil no.
I agree that Bush will be rehabilitated by historians. It will be speeded up if there is, unfortunately, another terrorist attack on U.S. soil during the Obama administration.
I hoep ther is not and apparently Obama is not as soft on terrorism as he was painted during the election. Some of the things he has said since the election make me think he will be tougher on terror than many thought.
Do you think his closing Gitmo is a good idea? I think as far as world perception of the US goes, it is, but what are we going to do with these prisoners? I don't care what anyone (like the ACLU) says, many of them were and are terrorists. I don't think our military is that stupid to not be able to tell the difference between innocence and guilt.Now lets talk about our new treasury secretary. Two allegations of tax fraud and one admittance of tax evasion. Let's hope the press, other than FOX, will do their job. Enough about how awesome Michelle's dress looked, how about investigating the allegations against this guy.
I am not opposed to closing Gitmo, I think you are right and it will improve America's standing in the world. What concerns me is that there does not seem to be any realistic idea of whta to do with these very dangerous people. None of these guys were picked up at the local ice cream parlour.As far as treasury goes if tax evasion is cool then Obama should nominate Wesley Snipes to be asst. Treasury sec., then we would have nothing but intergity at the top. I will withhol judgment on Obama until we get a chance to see what he is really about. I think you can pretty much discount all the campaign rhetoric as just that. His actions in office will really give us the measure of the man.
I hoep ther is not and apparently Obama is not as soft on terrorism as he was painted during the election. Some of the things he has said since the election make me think he will be tougher on terror than many thought.
I wonder if it wasn't so much how he was painted by the media, but rather that he was confronted by the realities of the world. That, or he was campaigning on a message that appealed to the voters that didn't reflect the way he knew he would have to do things as president. I think that in the past we have seen presidents who govern more in the center than their campaigns would make us believe. As for Obama, I have said it before - we will see a repeat of Clinton in the way he governs from the left-center.
I think it is common for presidents to tack to the center after they are in office. W did it too, although he gets little credit for it. Once in office Presidents seem to realize that they cannot govern from either the extreme left or right. If they try, what happens is generally governmental gridlock and then nothing happens.
