Rare Contributor
A small majority of Democrats now have a favorable view of former President George W. Bush nearly nine years after he left office, according to a surprising new poll.
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When Bush left office in January 2009, he had a 34 percent overall approval rating, and a 6 percent approval rating with Democrats. Now, according to a poll released this week, 51 percent of Democrats either have a somewhat or very favorable view of Bush, and 42 percent hold a somewhat or very unfavorable view of the former president.
RELATED: Former Presidents Bush and Obama delivered rebukes to Trump without mentioning his name
The new approval ratings come just one week after the former president delivered a stern rebuke of President Donald Trump and his presidency without ever mention his name, saying during a speech in New York:
We’ve seen nationalism distorted into nativism, forgotten the dynamism that immigration has always brought to America. We see a fading confidence in the value of free markets and international trade, forgetting that conflict, instability and poverty follow in the wake of protectionism.
He continued: “This means people of every race, religion, and ethnicity can be fully and equally American. It means that bigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the American creed.”
The survey, which was conducted online by Economist-YouGov, was conducted between Oct. 22-24 and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
