Who is More Responsible For The Current State of the Economy - Obama or Bush?

According to a USA Today/Gallup Poll taken last weekend, 71% of those surveyed believed that George W. Bush should shoulder the majority of the blame for the current state of the economy.

Of those surveyed, approximately 33% said that Bush deserved a "great deal" of the blame for the weak economy, 33% said that Bush deserved a "moderate" amount of blame, while the remaining 1/3rd believed that Bush "warranted not much or none of the responsibility".

The sputtering economy is certainly taking a toll on President Obama though, as a full 80% of those surveyed last July believed that Bush should be blamed for the current state of the economy. If a strong economic recovery fails to take shape in the US over the near-term, then you can safely assume that the 71% figure will drop even further by next summer.

51% of those surveyed last week said that they believed that President Obama was "dealing with problems he inherited, not created", and that he does not deserve "much or none of the responsibility" for our current economic problems.

However, 48% of the people interviewed for the survey said that President Obama deserves "a great deal or moderate amount of the blame", which is a marked increase from the 32% figure posted last summer.

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The least surprising piece of data included in the USA Today article was the fact that Republicans tend to point the finger of blame at President Obama (by a 4-1 ratio), while Democrats overwhelmingly blame George W. Bush (by a more than 20-1 ratio) for the current state of the economy.

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The bottom line - until the economy starts to meaningfully improve, and until the unemployment rate starts to steadily trend downwards, President Obama will continue to lose support on surveys such as these.

Without a doubt, the economy was in horrific shape when President Obama took office, but we are nearly halfway through his term and the country is still in pretty rough shape. If the national unemployment rate continues to hover at around 9-10% throughout the second half of President Obama's term, then things could get REALLY ugly in the polls for Obama. With George W. Bush's run as president fading away in the rearview mirror, people are wanting to see results from the current president when it comes to the economy.

Source: USA Today - Poll: George W. Bush Still Gets Blames For Economic Woes

Filed under: The Economic Meltdown