PRINCETON, NJ -- President George W. Bush's job approval rating in the latest USA Today/Gallup poll, conducted May 30-June 1, is at 28%, essentially where it has been for the last two months, and tied for the lowest of his administration. Bush's disapproval rating is at 68%, one point off the highest such reading in Gallup history.
Bush's job approval ratings, already low as the year began, have been in a slight decline since January. Bush averaged 33% in three polls conducted in January, but in the five latest polls conducted in April and May, he has received four 28% ratings and one 29%.
The lowest job approval rating in Gallup's history is 22%, recorded by Harry Truman in 1952. The only other president to score lower than 28% was Richard Nixon in 1973 and 1974 (although Jimmy Carter also received a 28% rating in 1979).
A little less than seven years ago, in September 2001, Bush's job approval rating was 90%, the highest in Gallup Poll history. The 62-point swing between Bush's high point and his low point is reminiscent of the drop suffered by Truman, who received an 87% approval rating in 1945 shortly after he took office after Franklin Roosevelt's death, and by Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, whose approval rating dropped from 89% in February and March 1991 to 29% by the summer of 1992.
Survey Methods
Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,012 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted May 30-June 1, 2008. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points.
Interviews are conducted with respondents on land-line telephones (for respondents with a land-line telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell-phone only).
In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
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