Who was the most unppular president in modern US history?

May 16, 2004 4:58 PM

Who was the most unpopular president in modern U.S. history? Who had the lowest poll ratings at any one time?
posted by inksyndicate to Law & Government (8 answers total)

What counts as "modern"?
posted by jjg at 5:23 PM on May 16, 2004

I guess he means since scientific polls are taken, that'd be since the Eisenhower era. and no, I don't know the answer but I'm sure that Googling it up is far from impossible -- the media is crazy about popularity ratings -- it's the cornerstone of their coverage.
posted by matteo at 5:53 PM on May 16, 2004

Highs and Lows of Presidential Public Approval Ratings. Found via this page, which was linked to by this page.
posted by cmonkey at 5:58 PM on May 16, 2004

Response by poster: Pardon my lack of Googling. 21% for Carter!
posted by inksyndicate at 6:13 PM on May 16, 2004

I would think that right before Nixon resigned would have to be the lowest. But I dunno what kinda polls were being taken.
posted by bingo at 6:30 PM on May 16, 2004

comonkey clinton isn't on that list, we need to add that and GW to it. Someone should compile their stats and post the whole list here, making this the best source for the answer to this question... as I would put more faith in the longevity of MeFi then almost any other site out there.
posted by cell divide at 9:13 PM on May 16, 2004

A page on Nixon's approval amid Watergate (with graphs)

That includes a link to this page that lets you see back data for various Presidents.

Clinton's low was 37% on 6/5-6/93. I'm not sure what happened then, but he was only in the 30's a couple of times. At the time of impeachment, he was in the mid 60's.
posted by smackfu at 8:35 AM on May 17, 2004

> 21% for Carter!

Shall we see if we can break that record this time round?
posted by goethean at 11:02 AM on May 17, 2004