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Verdict On Bush, Too

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The Associated Press

Published: November 5, 2008

WASHINGTON - Off the ballot but still in voters' minds, President Bush watched election results like the rest of the country Tuesday night and privately told his friends and advisers, "May God bless whoever wins tonight."

Even before one vote was counted, this result was clear: The presidential race was a verdict on the two-term president, too.

Both Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain positioned themselves as agents of change - that is, change from Bush.

The president's approval ratings have hovered near historically low levels - it was just 26 percent in an AP-GfK poll conducted a couple of weeks before Election Day - and he was a factor in voters' decision-making no matter how much he tried to stay out of the race.

In preliminary results from an Associated Press exit poll of voters Tuesday, only about one in four voters approved of how Bush is handling his job, and the Democratic-run Congress got about the same.

The president voted absentee several days ago, so there was no video of him at his precinct, no statements to reporters, no public appearance whatsoever.

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