Conservatives are fond of labeling Jimmy Carter the worst president in history (granted, part of that is a reflection of self-deprecating comments the humble Pres. Carter has made about his own tenure at 1600 Penn).

In his four years, Pres. Carter’s poll rating valley hit a low of only 28% approval. Pretty bad, sure. The only president to ever have had a lower nadir was Tricky Dick at 23% in the wake of Watergate.

As many also know (but few conservatives are willing to admit), our current president had previously been tied with Pres. Carter at only 28% approvals. Again, that’s pretty bad when so few of your fellow countrymen approve of the job your doing as our nation’s titular leader.

With a year and a half left to his administration, the current Pres. Bush has now managed to surpass Pres. Carter by earning himself a 26% approval rating.  (Pres. Carter’s worst polling came toward the last six months of his term.) The highly unpopular “W” is also getting a whopping 65% disapproval rating.

So if, as conservatives are fond of saying, Pres. Carter was the worst president in history … and Pres. Bush is now considered by the vast majority of Americans to be even worse …

Does that make Pres. Bush worster? Worsest? Maybe that W really stands for “Worsterest”, ya think?
At the rate 43’s unpopularity is soaring, even Pres. Nixon may get a reprieve posthumously.

And remember, no matter how far they try to distance themselves from Pres. 26% the serious contenders for the Republican nomination all want to follow Pres. Bush’s lead on the major issues of the day (that’d be Iraq, Iraq, and Iraq … oh, and that war on terror that Iraq has distracted the conservatives away from).