Clinton Leaves With Highest Job RatingPresident Clinton is leaving office with the highest job-approval rating of any president since such polling began half a century ago, a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll shows.President-elect George W. Bush is coming in with an identical 65% job-approval rating. But most Americans say they like Bush as a person better than Clinton, 60% to 41%. The first poll taken after Clinton entered office in 1993 gave him a 58% job-approval rating. He prepares to leave with a score 7 points higher. Clinton's numbers, boosted in large part by his presiding over the longest economic expansion in the nation's history, never fell below 53% in his final four years in office. They rose to a high of 73% in December 1998 when he was impeached in the Monica Lewinsky case. But analysts say that while the public generally thought Clinton was doing a good job, their reservations about his character ultimately hampered Vice President Gore's ability to follow him into office. The margin between Clinton's job-approval and personal-approval numbers created the opportunity for Bush to win this upset election,says Emory University political scientist Merle Black. Because of the personal scandals, Gore was never able to take full advantage of Clinton's good record. |
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