Hindsight is 20-20, isn't that what they say?

Interesting news from the Gallup Poll folks today - looking back, more people think Clinton did a good job now than did four years ago. And Bush I is getting lower ratings - perhaps it's distaste by association?

The summary:

Kennedy gets the highest retrospective approval rating, at 84%. Ronald Reagan ranks second at 71%. Roughly 6 in 10 Americans approve of the jobs Jimmy Carter, Clinton, Bush, and Gerald Ford did as president. Only two presidents do not receive net positive retrospective ratings -- Lyndon Johnson, of whom 41% approve and 41% disapprove, and Nixon, of whom just 28% approve.

When Gallup last asked this question in March 2002, just 51% approved of Clinton's performance as president, 10 points lower than his current retrospective rating. In the 2002 poll, the elder Bush's rating was 69%, which, compared with the current 56%, has declined 13 points. Most other presidents' ratings have remained stable and are within a few points of their 2002 measurements. There has been a small but statistically significant change in Nixon's evaluations -- the current 28% rating is down from 34% in 2002 and is the lowest Gallup has ever measured for him on this question, which was first asked in 1990.

Re those Johnson numbers, a hefty 18% have no opinion on him - and that's down from 27% in 2002 and where most of the change over the last four years has come from. That 'no opinion' bloc has shrunk for everybody, though in some cases (like Clinton, from 2% to 1%) it was negligible to start with. (Interestingly, both Ford and Carter had their whole swing come from formerly no-opinion respondents, one up and one down. The others absorbed some in both directions.)

It's an interesting set of numbers. Take a look.