in early 1991, during the Gulf War, President George H.W. Bush was rated as doing
a good job by a whopping 89 percent of the electorate, a number matched by
President George W. Bush in 2001 in the immediate aftermath of the September 11
attacks. But both Presidents G.H.W. and G.W. Bush saw very low ratings of about
25 percent, as, in the senior Bush’s case, Americans were reacting to an economic
recession, and, in the junior Bush’s case, Americans were reflecting fears of the late
2008 economic crisis and concern about the war in Iraq.