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Gaffes: President Bush made a fool out of himself on a number of occasions.

He famously tried to exit out of the wrong door at a 2005 conference in Beijing (left). Winked at the Queen in 2007

George W. Bush has been named as the least popular living US president, according to a survey released yesterday.

The 64-year-old Republican nicknamed Dubya, who took America to war against terrorism, and under whose watch the financial downfall occurred, was labelled the most unpopular living leader of the last 50 years in the US by respected pollsters Gallup.
The 43rd president, Mr Bush – son of former president George H. W. Bush – was infamous for his gaffes at high-profile events and was regularly aped during his eight years in charge of America.

   

His election, in 2000, was contentious, too, after he defeated Democratic rival Al Gore by a slim margin, with the votes having to be re-counted.

And after the September 11 attacks in his first year in office Mr Bush waged War on Terrorism, ordered an assault on Afghanistan that year and marched into Iraq in 2003.

 

And in 2004 he was re-elected after another narrow victory, this time over John Kerry, and during his second term in the White House the Texas man’s popularity plummeted.

 

He was roundly criticised for his slow reaction to dealing with Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans five years ago. With $90billion to pay in damages and 1,836 dead, it was the costliest hurricane in US history.

According to Gallup’s 2010 poll of the most popular US president of the last 50 years, John F. Kennedy, murdered in 1963, was top of the list with a 85 per cent approval rating.

Next came former actor Ronald Reagan with 74 per cent and Bill Clinton, Mr Bush’s predecessor, who is the most popular living ex-president with 69 per cent, despite being caught up in a sex scandal.

George H. W. Bush, who Mr Clinton defeated in the 1992 election, was next with 64 per cent approval while behind him were Gerald Ford (61 percent) and Jimmy Carter (52 percent).

At the other end of the table, the man who prolonged American’s war in Vietnam and wasembroiled in the Watergate Scandal, Richard Nixon, was deemed the least popular president in the past half century with only 26 per cent approval.

Next came Mr Bush with 47 percent and third most unpopular was Lyndon Johnson (49 per cent), who took the reins from Mr Kennedy following his assassination.

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