Michele Bachmann calls Barack Obama the worst president ever

Rattling around the echo chamber

From safe within the confines of a friendly right-wing radio host's studio, Rep. Michele Bachmann has asserted that Barack Obama is the worst American president ever.

Worse than Jimmy Carter, and not even half-way through his first term.

Ben Shapiro, at BigGovernment.com, didn't challenge her on her assertion, of course. He egged her on, though, accusing the president of being a liar while Bachmann called him "infantile."

If you ask us, Tim Pawlenty was a lot more fun to listen to on "The Daily Show."

Here's another gem from the 6th district congresswoman (Hat tip: MinnIndy):

"And the thing is, here we are, people can't wait until November. They're practically lining up for polls now, they can't wait to go out and vote. The only thing is people wish Barack Obama was up for re-election right now, because they'd honestly love to have a chance to throw him out of office. Everywhere I go, people ask me, 'Michele, can we impeach the president?' They want a referendum on him. I also had someone today say, 'There's no way he'll run for a second term. No way. No one would vote for him.' I don't know if the White House understands how the floor has dropped out under support for this president."

Yeah, it's got to worry Republicans that voters can't hit the polls now. How are they going to keep their base purple-in-the-face angry for another five months, as the economy continues to climb out of the recession?

Has the floor dropped out from underneath Obama? Probably, inside the GOP base -- if it had anywhere to go but down anyway. But for the rest of the country? We checked in with the Gallup organization's handy-dandy compare-a-president tool, to see where the job approval ratings stood for Carter and Obama at this stage in their respective White House tenures, and then we threw in George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan for good measure. Results:

• Obama: 50 percent
• Bush (waving The Decider flag in the Iraq war): 76 percent
• Carter: 41 percent
• Reagan: 45 percent

Screen shot via Gallup

Then we strung out the job approval ratings to the end of Bush's, Carter's and Reagan's first terms to see where things stood. Results:

• Bush: 53 percent (and diving rapidly)
• Carter: 34 percent
• Reagan: 59 percent

Screen shot via Gallup

Finally we looked at Bush and Reagan at the end of their two-term presidencies. Results:

• Bush: 34 percent
• Reagan: 63 percent

Screen shot via Gallup

If the floor is falling out from under Barack Obama, maybe George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter will be there in the basement to catch his fall.

Miss those two yet?