Opposite Polling Results for Obama and Bush

First Read has some observations on yesterday’s NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll results. Despite the greater polarization we have seen in recent years, Obama is entering office with higher ratings than his predecessors:

Obama is enjoying a bigger honeymoon than his recent predecessors ever did. Just consider these numbers in the latest NBC/WSJ poll: 67% say they’re pleased with Obama’s early appointments, 75% believe that the level of his involvement in making policy has been exactly right, and his fav/unfav rating is 67%-16%. By comparison, a month after their initial presidential victories, Bush’s rating was 48%-35% and Clinton’s was 60%-19%.

Bush’s approval is as low as Obama’s approval is high:

While the public is giving Obama a nice honeymoon, it’s finalizing its divorce from President Bush. A whopping 79% in the poll say they’re not going to miss him when he leaves office. That’s compared with 55% who said the same of Clinton in December of 2000. Moreover, almost half (48%) think that Bush will go down as one of the worst presidents in our history. Just 18% said that of Clinton and only 6% said that of Bush 41. But Bush 43 isn’t the only Republican who has taken a hit in the new NBC/WSJ poll. Dick Cheney leaves office with sporting an all-time low in his personal rating. And the Republican Party’s fav/unfav is 27%-52%, which is its lowest rating ever in the poll (by comparison, the Democratic Party’s is nearly reversed, 49%-28%). And get this: The most popular Republican we tested is Condi Rice, whose fav/unfav 47%-18%. But among Republicans only, the most popular is Palin — with a whopping 73%-13% rating. But Palin’s overall score is a net negative, 35%-45%, which means she fares poorly among Democrats and independents.

If Republicans see Sarah Palin as their top pick they risk remaining a minority party for quite a while.

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