To be fair, it seems to me like politicians in general have lower favourables now than historically. But that still doesn't excuse Romney of course.
Naw, it's just Romney.
Has anyone polled Bush lately? I found a CNN poll from September where he was 42-53, which is comparable to Romney's numbers.
Here is how Bush does today:
BTW: George W. Bush has a 45-50 favorable rating these days, according to the poll - among all voters.
For the record I didn't really mean individual politicians over time - I admit my wording was a bit unclear.
I may be wrong but it is my impression that public level of trust in politicians has gone down in general over the last few decades. That's certainly true here, at least.
It certainly has, but look at how successful Obama was in 2008 in seeming to transcend that. It's as if the negative feelings leave an opening for national politicians to appear to be above it all.