Yep, people still dislike Bush. No question. Many disaffected Republicans are furious with the party, have gone Independent, and believe President Bush caused much of the problems people deal with today. But their definition of problems (over taxing, spending like crazy, pointless wars) have all be exceeded by President Obama.

President Obama’s unfavorable rating is not some magical mystery. He lied to the American people and has done exactly opposite from what he campaigned and promised. That tends to make people angry. So this sort of advice is absolutely absurd:

PPP’s Tom Jensen just noted some new polling data on the subject:

[51% of undecided voters on the generic national ballot] think the current state of the economy is still George W. Bush’s responsibility to only 27% who think it’s Obama’s, and 55% of them would rather have Obama as President to only 28% who are feeling Bush nostalgia.

These folks aren’t happy with how things are going. But they were even unhappier with how things were going a couple years ago. Playing the Bush card may just convince them it’s better to stay the current course, even if they don’t love it, than to go back to the old one.

Ask the wrong question, get the wrong answer. The thing is, both Democrats and Republicans don’t want to actually hear the answer because it’s difficult for them: stop spending. How to pander to voters and cut services too? Yeah, tough one.

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