Bring Bush Back?

Public Policy Polling has released their Presidential approval ratings for December, and Obama remains in favor with just under half of the population (49%, the same as in November), but the most stunning result is that 44 percent of those polled said they would rather have Bush back in office (50 percent said they prefer Obama to Bush).

Also important is that independents chose Obama over Bush at a rate of 54-39 percent, actually a small margin when you consider how Obama seemed to dominate the independent vote in last year's election. (Full cross-tabulation available here)

This proves one of three things:

1. Obama (and by extension, the Democrats) are in serious trouble for 2010/12.

2. People have really quicken forgotten how much they actually disliked Bush (the "time heals all wounds" hypothesis).

3. Polls can be crazy sometimes.

Okay, it's probably some combination of all three things.

But still, it has to be seriously unnerving for the Democrats to realize that such a large portion of the population would actually prefer to have Bush back in office instead of Obama. Remember, during the run-up to the 2008 Presidential election, even the Republicans were trying to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the President. That's how politically lethal the public dis-taste for the 43rd President was just a little more than a year ago.

And yeah, PPP is a legitimate pollster. In last year's election, their polls came closer to actual results than Real Clear Politics, Zogby, or Rasmussen in swing states (see the sidebar on their blog).

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