Prior to end end of the Bush administration, a significant majority of Americans was satisfied with the U.S. economy -- with 63% of them saying it was good at the beginning of 2007. But then everything crashed, and by the end of 2007 most Americans were realizing the economy was in deep trouble. By the first part of 2008 about 59% said the economy was poor -- and by January of 2009 that figure had climbed to a whopping 86%.Since Obama became president those figures have gone down, but a significant majority of Americans still say the economy is poor (64% at the end of January 2014). The Republicans have blocked all of President Obama's attempts to improve the economy (especially when it comes to new job creation). They have done this on purpose, in an attempt to shift the blame for the poor economy onto President Obama. They thought if they could shift the blame for the recession (and continuing poor economy) away from George Bush (and themselves), they could fool the American public into returning them to control of the government.
But the American people are not as stupid as the Republicans had hoped they would be. As the chart below shows, more Americans still blame George Bush (and the Republicans) for the poor economy than blame President Obama (and the Democrats). For the first time since the recession, less than a majority blame Bush, but he is still blamed by a 10 point larger percentage than Obama.
These charts were made from information in a new CNN / ORC Poll. The survey was done between January 31st and February 2nd of a random national sample of 900 registered voters, and has a margin of error of 3.5 points.
