Poll: Democrats’ Favorite Recent President Is Bill Clinton — Not Obama

President Barack Obama and President Bill Clinton.
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A national survey from Public Policy Polling (D), asking respondents about their favorite and least favorite recent presidents, finds an interesting result: Bill Clinton outranks Barack Obama, thanks to a lead among Democrats.

The overall national top-line result has Ronald Reagan in first place with a 41% plurality, followed by Bill at 27%, and Obama with 22%. Among Democrats, Clinton has 46% to Obama’s 36%.

So does the fact that Bill is held in higher esteem by Dems reflect any kind of buyer’s remorse of Obama? Or is it instead simple nostalgia for the past over the troubles of the present, or some combination?

“I think Democrats associate the Clinton years with prosperity and it’s natural they would look back on that favorably compared to the continued difficult times of Obama’s first year in office,” PPP communications director Tom Jensen told us in an e-mail. “If Obama’s policies do end up getting things turned around I’m sure he will go up in this kind of polling. But I don’t think it reflects unhappiness with him so much as the fact that Clinton obviously was able to accomplish more in eight years than Obama has been able to in one.”

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