CNN poll: Bush's terms a failure

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 01:28:26 GMT | PressTV

More than two-thirds of Americans in a CNN poll say George W. Bush's 8-year tenure as president of the US has been a failure.  Around 68 percent of those questioned said that Bush's two terms in the White House came up short. 44 percent blamed his personal shortcomings for his failures and 22 percent held responsible circumstances beyond his control, a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Sunday indicated.  Thirty-one percent, meanwhile, said they considered Bush's presidency a success. Only 3 percent of those questioned say Bush was one of the greatest presidents in the nation's history. Forty-six percent rate him a poor president.  Half of those polled said the US could have been better off today if Al Gore had been elected president in 2000 rather than Bush, with 27 percent saying the country would be worse off if Gore had won. Twenty-two percent say things would be about the same.  "Due to the Florida recount, Bush had the misfortune of coming into office under controversial circumstances," CNN polling director Keating Holland told the US broadcaster, adding, "a lot of Americans apparently remember those circumstances and now wish things had gone a little differently."  He added, "except for the rating Richard Nixon has when he resigned, that's the lowest approval rating an outgoing president has received in the six decades of scientific public opinion polling," Holland said.  The poll was conducted Jan. 12-15 among 1,245 respondents. The survey's sampling error was 3 percentage points for some questions and 4.5 percentage points for others, CNN said.