Former President George W. Bush is enjoying another bounce in the post-presidential polls . First , the opening of his presidential library produced a spate of positive coverage about his time in office . Now , Gallup has released a survey showing that for the first time since 2005 , more people approve than disapprove of Bush . This kind of shift in public opinion is likely to continue , with more upswings as well as downturns ahead . This is the nature of presidential legacies . They are a bit like what Mark Twain once said about the weather in New England : if you do n't like it , just wait a second and it will change . Presidential reputations are never fixed in stone . With the exception of a few of our leaders , such as Abraham Lincoln of Franklin Roosevelt , people tend to remember presidents in different ways at different times . Even some of the more unpopular presidents have seen their support rise in the post-presidency period . Why is it the case ? The most obvious reason is that the passions for presidents -- both good and bad -- tend to go down after they leave office . Americans turn their attention to the new boss and to new issues , and the focus of their sentiment shifts elsewhere . This is particularly true in our heated political times when voters become so polarized on their feelings about a leader -- feelings that can become most intense as we approach the elections . Another factor has to do with what the successor does in office . Much of the controversy that surrounded Bush had to do with his national security policies . The war in Iraq caused a huge controversy with many Americans feeling the president had gone into an unnecessary war based on false evidence . By the second term , many Americans were also upset with some of the tactics the administration had used to pursue terrorists , such as interrogation . But President Barack Obama , who campaigned as a critic of these policies , ended up leaving many of the programs in place and actually becoming more aggressive on certain fronts , such as the use of drone strikes . Obama has given these controversial policies a certain bipartisan imprimatur that has dulled the anger that existed toward Bush . The ways in which a president 's policies unfold over time is also essential . In some ways , Obama did Bush a favor . By bringing Iraq and Afghanistan to an end , he took these issues off the public radar . Without any kind of mass chaos in those countries , as some critics had warned would occur , the issues that caused Bush so much problems faded from the public mind . The flip side is that some policies look better in perspective . Although the TARP program still has many critics , the fact that it stabilized the financial markets and ended up not costing the federal government any money makes one of Bush 's most controversial decisions look better in hindsight . Presidential reputations also can be shaped , in the relative short term , by what a president does after leaving office . For example , former President Jimmy Carter has been successful in rehabilitating his image through his extensive post-presidential activities on foreign policy . Former President Bill Clinton has enjoyed strong approval for his work with his international foundation and , among Democrats , through his decision to engage in partisan wars after his time was done . Bush might have helped himself by staying outside of the media spotlight . There is a certain amount of good will that emerges as the structural problems with politics become clear . When a president is in office , they tend to receive all the blame , or credit , for what happens in Washington . When there are problems moving forward a policy , such as in reviving the economy , the public tends to blame the president . But when those problems continue long after a president is gone , as has been the case with the economy , the public tends to gain some perspective ( even as they attack the existing president ) about how the sources of discontent stem from the structural problems with the government and the economy rather than any individual person . We judge a president based on the political times we are living in -- not simply in the times that they governed . Presidential reputations could improve if the polls are tallied at a moment when a president resonates with the politics of the moment . Finally , and this is not relevant to Bush yet , the opening of archival records from the period a president is in office can dramatically change how we see him . President Dwight Eisenhower , who was once treated as a popular yet bumbling president , was found to have had a firm grip on decision-making in the White House . Discoveries from the Ronald Reagan archives in Simi Valley , California , revealed that he was much more than a former Hollywood actor who moved to the top through charisma and luck . Obama might want to take a close look at these kinds of swings . On the one hand , it might give him some solace that even with all the grief he has faced over issues such as health care and sluggish economic growth , it is easy to see how his record could look much stronger to Americans over time . On the other hand , he might want to be a bit cautious about taking too much comfort from positive approval ratings . After all , it 's all relative with respect to time .
George W. Bush : President George W. Bush is enjoying another bounce in the polls . Zelizer : With a few exceptions , presidential reputations are never fixed in stone . He says one reason is that passions for presidents tend to lessen after they leave office . Bush : President George W. Bush has done Obama a favor by continuing some of his policies .