Wow. A reputable poll shows that
the public believes Barack Obama is the worst president since World War
II. Worse than Richard M. Nixon, driven from the presidency by
Watergate? Much. Worse than Jimmy Carter, for decades the very symbol of
the feckless chief executive? Loads. Worse than George W. Bush, still a
lightning rod on the left and a symbol of disappointment on the right?
Definitely.
These startling poll results set loose the predictable reaction: A flurry of told-you-so nods on the right and a fusillade of this-tells-us-nothing assertions on the left. For once, they're both right.
Obama
is in trouble, no matter how carefully you peel through the Quinnipiac
University poll that is causing such a firestorm. There's almost no good
news there, or anywhere else, for the president. Then again, this
worst-president poll sheds little light. Almost every veteran observer
of polls and presidents will likely attest to that.
First, the trouble.
Obama
has it, in several dimensions. The public is split evenly -- 48 percent
to 48 percent -- on whether the president is honest and trustworthy.
It's split fairly evenly on whether he has strong leadership qualities,
with a slight advantage to those who think he doesn't. The same for
whether the president cares about "people like you," with the same
slight advantage this time to the president.
Here's
the big one. By a fairly substantial margin (45 percent to 38 percent),
the public believes the nation would be better off had former Gov. Mitt
Romney of Massachusetts been elected two years ago rather than Obama.
