Well for those who say history will be kinder to Shrub than we might suspect may be right. After all with a little recrafting of history I am sure he will be cast in a somewhat better light by those that still support him.

The whole 22% that is...

Seriously, with this sort of approval rating one imagines he has no where to go but up.

(CBS) President Bush will leave office as one of the most unpopular departing presidents in history, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll showing Mr. Bush's final approval rating at 22 percent.

Seventy-three percent say they disapprove of the way Mr. Bush has handled his job as president over the last eight years.

Mr. Bush's final approval rating is the lowest final rating for an outgoing president since Gallup began asking about presidential approval more than 70 years ago.

The rating is far below the final ratings of recent two-term presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, who both ended their terms with a 68 percent approval rating, according to CBS News polling.

Recent one term presidents also had higher ratings than Mr. Bush. His father George H.W. Bush had an end-of-term rating of 54 percent, while Jimmy Carter's rating was 44 percent.

Harry Truman had previously had the lowest end-of-term approval at 32 percent, as measured by Gallup.

Views of Mr. Bush's popularity are highly partisan. Only 6 percent of Democrats approve of the job he has done as president, while 57 percent of Republicans approve. Eighteen percent of independents approve.

Interestingly, Mr. Bush also has the distinction of having the highest approval rating for a president, as well as the lowest.

In November 2008, just before the presidential election, only 20 percent approved of the job he was doing as president - the lowest of any president since Gallup began asking the question in 1938.

But Mr. Bush enjoyed a high approval rating of 90 percent -- the highest of any president -- following the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

Mr. Bush edged out his father for that highest rating. George H.W. Bush received an 88 percent approval rating in 1991 amid the success of the first Gulf War.

Truman comes closest to Mr. Bush's record low approval rating of 20 percent. In February 1952, just 22 percent of Americans approved of the job Truman was doing as president.

Evaluations Of The President

Half of all Americans, when they look back on Mr. Bush's eight years in office, believe he has been a poor president. Thirty-three percent think he has been an average president. Twelve percent say he has been a good president, and only 5 percent say he has been a very good president.

This evaluation is more negative than the ones Americans gave both the current president’s predecessor, Mr. Clinton, and the president’s father.

The president has also fallen short of expectations: As Mr. Bush was preparing to enter the White House in January 2001, 43 percent thought he would be a very good or good president. Only 12 percent thought he would be a poor one.

As for the incoming president, the CBS News poll also asked about expectations of President-elect Barack Obama. Sixty-eight percent think Mr. Obama will be a good or very good president - 25 points higher than expectations for Mr. Bush.

Nine in 10 Democrats expect Mr. Obama to be a good president, including 48 percent who think he will be a "very good" one. Republicans are less hopeful, but 38 percent still say Mr. Obama will be a good president.

History, at least, doesn't have a partisan bias. Even Nixon gets a fairly decent review now thirty years later

We won't know what Bush's legacy in history will be for a while yet.
If, fifty years from now, the Middle East has democratic elected governments then he will be seen as a visionary. If not, then he will be seen as a failure (that assesment was made by Gwen Ifil and I agreed with her)

I completely disagree with this.

"History, at least, doesn't have a partisan bias."

History is written by the winners and by those who can spread their version of events and repeat that story loudly and often enough that others believe it.

maybe so to an extent. The winners do write the history. But, for example, looking back 200 years we don't really have a Whig or a Tory bias.

like the Jefferson-Hamilton feud, we have a semi Jeffersonian bias but we still have the objectivity of time when looking back to see the Hamilton side too

at least his rating has a two digit approval. can't be said about the democratic congress.

You hit the nail on the head!
My days in high school reeked with republican bias. We were brainwashed the Republican Way. It was wickedly horrible.

Nixon only looks good compared to Bush

I'm curious where you live because I had one conservative teacher in any of my political science, government, history, or economics classes. 1 in 8 to be exact.

and madison, Carter makes everyone look good.

We should have been so lucky as to had Carter in the place of Bush the last 8 years. Jesus man were ya been?

3 numbers:

13.9, 7.8, and 15.7.

The inflation, unemloyment, and prime rate from the Carter administration.

every one of those figures is higher than when he entered office. and other than the gas thing, there were no major crisis to deal with during his administration.

so, explain to me what was so amazing about Carter? And don't say unemployment because you treat the current rate (that's lower) like an atrocity.

Andrew Jackson, the only President to defy the Supreme Court. To this day many of the Indian Casinos only distribute $10's and $50's cause Jackson is on the $20

and the only President to completely pay the National Debt off

what was the defecit? What did he inherit from treasonouse Nixon? Did he have to bail out the entire banking system? What wars did he start based on Lies?

In these parts Jackson is known as a man who cant keep a promise, a liar, and a SOB!!

And that is just by the Cherokee!

and in some places a venerated hero. Kinda my point about how history remembers Presidents

He took a bad situation and made it worse. His foreign policy was essentially "bend over and take it." In case you missed the part, there were no major conflicts and his administration still dropped the ball.

and as for the war... I give up. you're apparently too ignorant and too dense to listen to something as silly as facts.

Teddy Roosevelt, created the Great White Fleet and the National Park system

and single handedly drove the extermination of the wolf from the West

I know my history pal. Carter faced the post vietnam syndrom. the first real arab oil boycott and many other unique problembs. He did fine. Unfortunatly the Iranians became wise to the fact the CIA rigged the elections that put the despised Sha of Iran in power and rebelled. The hostage crisis was not his fault it was an accident of history. Bush made his own messes. He ran around like an arsanist fireman and then had to put out his own fires.

George Bush, created first ever prescription drug coverage for seniors (and disabled like me), quintupled American AIDS relief to Africa. a program estimated to have save 10 million lives (CNN)

And really f*cked up in Iraq and took liberal advantage of the Constitution

No matter what people say about Teddy and ole Andy one thing is for sure.
They were men.

Bush is a coward!