A majority of Americans are still placing blame on former President George W. Bush for the struggling economy, more than three years after he left office, according to a new Gallup poll released on Thursday.
Sixty-eight percent of Americans place a great deal or moderate amount of blame on Bush for the economy, compared to the 52 percent of Americans who place some of the blame on Obama, the poll showed.
This relative blame between Bush and Obama, the poll says, has remained the same since September. However, since the “blame assessment” question was first asked in July of 2009, the blame on Obama has increased by 20 percentage points and decreased for Bush by 12 points.
Among those who identified as Democrats and Republicans, only 19 percent of Democrats placed blame on Obama, compared to the 49 percent of Republicans who blame Bush. Independents generally blame Bush more, as well.
The poll also shows that the economy still ranks highest among Americans as an election year issue.
Obama will talk about his economic plan on Thursday in Ohio, where he is expected to lay some of the blame on his predecessor and compare Romney’s policies to those of Bush.
The poll took place between June 7 and June 10, among 1,004 American adults. The margin of error was four percentage points.
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