While there is no denying that the Obama Administration is taking a big hit in opinion polls for the current economic state of affairs, the public is quite clear which President and which party deserves most of the blame, reports TDS Co-Editor Ruy Teixeira in his most recent ‘Public opinion Snapshot’ at the Center for American Progress website. As Teixeira explains:

…In a just-released ABC News/Washington Post poll, 60 percent of the public thought the Bush administration deserved a great deal or a good amount of blame for the country’s economic situation, compared to 42 percent who thought the Obama administration deserved that level of blame.
Similarly, in an early September CNN poll, 53 percent of the public thought Bush and the Republicans “are more responsible for the country’s current economic problems,” compared to just 33 percent who thought Obama and the Democrats were more responsible.

It’s sometimes said that Americans have short memories and forgive quickly. But when it comes to assigning responsibility for ruinous economic policy, it’s a different story. As Teixeira puts it, “Conservatives may want to believe the public has forgotten how bad the Bush administration was and blame only the Obama administration for the country’s ills. But that’s clearly not the case.”