While the media driven polls did their best to use over-weighted democrat samples in Bush’s final three years to show a lower rating than it was, his average over his full eight-year term were in line with the last four.

A couple of days ago the Washington Post - who ran it’s share of weighted polls - had this surprising tidbit in a story at The Fix:

“Bush’s 33 percent job approval rating was slightly higher than the 29 percent he averaged during the final year of his term in the Post/ABC but far below the 51 percent approval rating he averaged during his entire presidency — a number that soared in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001 but remained mired in lows 30s for much of the final years of his Administration.

This compares unfavorably to Post polling for past presidents on their way out the door. Bill Clinton had a 65 percent approval rating at the end of his term and averaged 57 percent for his eight years. George H.W. Bush left office (involuntarily) with a 56 percent approval rating and a career average of 63 percent. Ronald Reagan stood at 64 percent in the final Post poll and averaged 57 percent for his eight years in office.”

Of course - with the exception of his father - none of the prior presidents term included a war which historically counts for at least a 10 point negative differential in ratings

Nevertheless, as Obama’s first poll number is at 68 percent - before he did anything except to flub the oath - time will tell whether or not that number will sustain. As he is already stumbling out of the gate and with ill conceived plan to shut gitmo, attack the economic crisis with deficit spending, I imagine he’s looking at the 30s before the year is out.