Bloomberg poll: Americans Blame Bush, Not Obama, for Deficit, Jobs, Afghan War

The former Republican president is blamed more than President Barack Obama for the budget deficit, unemployment and illegal immigration, according to a Bloomberg National Poll conducted July 9-12.

Most surprising is that 60 percent say Bush is primarily responsible for the current situation in Afghanistan.


Asked to compare Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina with Obama’s handling of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, 51 percent say Bush’s performance was worse, while 35 percent name Obama. Republicans are more likely to pan Obama’s performance on the oil spill, with 69 percent saying he did worse than Bush


More blame Bush than Obama for the federal deficit, 32 percent to 24 percent. Among Republicans, 39 percent say Obama is to blame, while about a quarter of independents hold that view.


Bush was there for eight years and everything just kept getting worse,” says poll participant Kelly Redding, 31, an independent voter from Columbus, Ohio. “Obama can’t perform miracles overnight.”

Jeremy Dawson, 31, who has served three tours in Iraq, is among those who blame Bush more than Obama for some of the nation’s biggest problems.
“He focused so much on Iraq and Afghanistan and not enough on America,” says Dawson, who votes as an independent. “There was little or nothing being done in this country.”



“The public remembers the Bush years as a tumultuous time of costly wars, and the years when a budget surplus became a deficit,” said J. Ann Selzer, president of Selzer & Co., a Des Moines, Iowa-based firm that conducted the survey.




http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-15/americans-blame-bush-not-obama-for-deficit-jobs-afghan-war.html




http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-15/americans-blame-bush-not-obama-for-deficit-jobs-afghan-war.html

for the current situation in Afghanistan?

There wouldn't be a "current situation in Afghanistan" if he'd finished the job he started, instead of behaving like a psychotic kid with ADD and illegally invading Iraq, thereby recklessly squandering the goodwill we had and http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8649455&mesg_id=8655863">leaving Afghanistan to spiral out of control.

Of course it is Bush's fault. The President has been hesitant to say anything like that, however, and has in fact encouraged America not to place blame anywhere. Blame will be placed, and it should go to Bush and the Republican Party that empowered him, including the GOP members of the House and Senate.