The
main headline coming from the new ABC/
Washington Post poll of George W. Bush's approval rating is that his rating has climbed all the way to 47 percent from 33 percent when he left office in 2009. Sure, he's still at -3 overall because 50 percent disapprove, but that's at least better.
But it might be a bit premature to assume that in his silence, George W. Bush finally gotten close to 50-50 rating. NBC and Wall Street Journal tested Bush's favorability earlier this month and they found his rating was still under water: 35 percent gave him a positive rating and 44 percent viewed him negatively. That's better than his 31/58 rating in January of 2009, but it's still below 50/50 and it's actually worse than his 37/40 rating in May 2011.
But let's set aside the NBC/WSJ poll for a second and assume the ABC/Washington Post one has the numbers right. First, as @LOLGOP points out:
George W. Bush's approval rating is up. Not attending Republican National Conventions will improve
ANY politician's image.
— @LOLGOP via Facebook
And the fact that Mitt Romney has worse approval ratings than Bush isn't great news for Republicans:
PLEASE NOTE: George W. Bush being more popular than most any other national Republican is not something to be proud of, GOP.
— @LOLGOP via TweetDeck
But of course, despite the fact that Bush was the Worst President Of Our Lives™, 84 percent of Republicans approve of his job performance. The bottom line is probably that Bush is a bit less unpopular now than he was immediately after leaving office, but not much—if any—more popular. And the GOP is not in any better shape.