According to Gallup's 2010 poll of the most popular U.S. 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 per cent) and Jimmy Carter (52 per cent).
At the other end of the table, the man who prolonged American's war in Vietnam and was embroiled 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 per cent and third most unpopular was Lyndon Johnson (49 per cent), who took the reins from Mr Kennedy following his assassination.
Mr Bush, who lives in Dallas, Texas, will forever be linked with the war in Iraq, the collapsed economy, and his tardy response in helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina.