Poll: Bush Disapproval Rating Breaks 60 Year Record As More Unpopular Than Truman

President George Bush made history today — by getting the highest disapproval rating of any President in 60 years, according to CNN:

As President-elect Obama visits the White House, a new national poll suggests that the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the most unpopular president in the six decades since presidential approval ratings were first measured.

Seventy-six percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday disapprove of how George W. Bush is handling his job as President. That’s an all-time high in CNN polling, or in Gallup polling dating back to World War II.

“No other president’s disapproval rating has gone higher than 70 percent. Bush has managed to do that three times so far this year,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “That means that Bush is now more unpopular than Richard Nixon was when he resigned from office during Watergate with a 66 percent disapproval rating.”

Prior to President Bush, the record holder for presidential disapproval was Harry Truman, with a 67 percent disapproval rating in January of 1952, his last full year in office.

As Obama visits the White House, 57 percent of those questioned think the transfer of presidential power will be relatively easy and free from tension, with 39 percent saying the transition will be difficult.

Many Americans never thought they’d see the day when a President would get polling numbers lower than Nixon’s when Nixon boarded the helicopter, gave his famous “V” sign, and flew off the White House lawn and into ill repute in many history books.

In an important sense, this makes it easier for President Elect Barack Obama because it’s clear many Americans are seeking the anti-Bush — more than than a Democrat. Can he hold this disappointed and angry coalition together, or at least parts of it so the Democrats benefit.