What do Stalin, OJ Simpson, Michael Jackson have in common?

Just how low is 18 percent?
By Richard Morin
© 2006, The Washington Post



The latest CBS News poll found that only 18 percent of the public has a favorable view of Cheney. How bad is a rating of 18 percent? According to a quick review of polling archives, it arguably makes Cheney:
- Less popular than singer Michael Jackson, bedmate of little boys and world-class screwball. One in four Americans - 25 percent - told Gallup polltakers last June they were still Jackson fans after the onetime King of Pop was found not guilty of child molesting.
- Less popular than former football star O.J. Simpson was after his arrest and trial for murdering his estranged wife and her companion. Three in 10 - 29 percent - of all Americans had a favorable view of Simpson in an October 1995 Gallup poll.
- Less popular with Americans than Joseph Stalin is with Russians. In 2003, fully 20 percent said Stalin, blamed for millions of deaths in the former Soviet Union during the 1930s and 1940s, was a "wise and humane" leader. Thirty-one percent also said they wouldn't object if Uncle Joe came back to rule again, according to surveys conducted by Russian pollsters.
- Much less popular than former
Vice President Spiro Agnew in his final days in office. Forty-five percent approved of the job that Agnew was doing as President Richard Nixon's veep in a Gallup Poll conducted in August 1973, little more than a month before Agnew resigned and pleaded no contest to a criminal tax evasion charge arising from a bribery investigation.
- Far less popular than former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey days after he announced in August 2004 that he had engaged in an extramarital affair with a man and would resign. His job approval rating bumped from 43 to 45 percent.