Bush gets higher likability ratings than Romney, Biden
Polls have repeatedly shown that voters find President Obama more likable than Mitt Romney, but a new poll released this week showed that they also have a higher opinion of former President George W. Bush.
A new Bloomberg News national poll showed that 43 percent of likely voters have a favorable opinion of Romney while 50 percent have an unfavorable view. By comparison, 46 percent have a positive view of Mr. Bush while 49 percent have a negative view.
Mr. Bush's favorability rating is also higher than Vice President Joe Biden's, who received a 42 percent positive rating. Fewer voters, though (45 percent), have a negative view of Biden than they do of Bush.
As Mr. Bush's former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer pointed out on Twitter, the favorability ratings Mr. Bush receives in the Bloomberg poll are the best he's received in years. When he left office, a CBS News poll showed he had a favorability rating of just 22 percent. A poll released over the summer showed that 63 percent of Americans still thought Mr. Bush deserved a great deal or a moderate amount of blame for the struggling economy, even though he had been out of office for more than three years.
Romney has kept his distance from Mr. Bush, who only appeared at the Republican National Convention in a video. The Republican candidate, however, is now attempting to deal with his own low popularity.
