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Ex-presidents Carter, Bush get high marks in poll

Agence France-Presse | 01/08/2009 12:28 AM

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WASHINGTON - A new poll released Wednesday shows Americans now have a positive view of former presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush despite their low approval ratings while they were in office.

The CNN survey on past commanders-in-chief came as all three living former presidents, Carter, Bush and ex-president Bill Clinton, join outgoing president George W. Bush and his successor, Barack Obama, for a rare lunch on Wednesday at the White House.

The CNN poll showed 64 percent of Americans questioned said they approve of how Carter handled his job as president and 60 percent said the same for elder Bush.

Both leaders had suffered dismal approval ratings while at the White House and both failed to win re-election after a first term.

Carter lost to Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980 and the elder Bush went down to defeat to Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992.

"Time has been kind to the former presidents," CNN's polling director Keating Holland said on the network's website.

"Carter's approval rating was just 31 percent on the eve of the 1980 election, and was at 34 percent in late December of that year, the last measure taken during his presidency," Holland said.

"But now 64 percent approve of how Carter handled his job as president."

The elder Bush had a low 34 percent approval rating shortly before losing the 1992 election.

But his poll ratings started climbing up against after his electoral defeat and by January 1993, 56 percent of Americans approved of his performance while president.

Bill Clinton enjoyed solid ratings as he finished his second term in 2001, with 66 percent approving how he handled the job. In the latest poll, Clinton received a slightly higher 69 percent rating.

The outgoing US president, however, will be stepping down on January 20 with a rock-bottom approval rating of 27 percent.

"The current occupant of the White House probably hopes history will treat him as kindly as it did his predecessors," Holland said of George W. Bush.

Obama has enjoyed sky-high poll numbers since his election victory in November, with ratings as high as 82 percent before he takes over at the White House on January 20.

The CNN/Opinion Research poll was carried out December 19-21, with 1,013 adults questioned by phone, and has a three point margin of error.