An episode in Bush clan philanthropy.

Former first lady Barbara Bush gave relief money to a hurricane relief fund on the condition that it be spent to buy educational software from her son Neil's company.

The chief of staff of former President George H.W. Bush would not disclose the amount earmarked for purchases from Ignite Learning.

Since Barbara Bush's gift, the Ignite Learning program has been given to eight public schools with high numbers of Hurricane Katrina evacuees, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Just another audacious example of greed.

Of course, Mrs. Bush did say those people displaced by Katrina were better off anyways…

In lieu of the recent abysmal presidential approval poll numbers, here is an interesting historical breakdown of past president approval highs and lows.

President	High		Low
Bush G.W.	92%	10/01	34%	11/05
Clinton	73%	1/98,12/98	36%	5/93
Bush G.H.W.	89%	2/91	29%	8/92
Reagan	68%	5/81,5/86	35%	1/83
Carter	75%	3/77	28%	7/79
Ford	74%	8/74	37%	1/75,3/75
Nixon	67%	11/69,1/73	23%	1/74
Johnson	80%	3/64	35%	8/68
Kennedy	80%	3/62	56%	9/63
Eisenhower	79%	12/56	48%	4/58
Truman	87%	6/45	22%	2/52
Roosevelt	84%	1/42	48%	8/39

Some quick takes from this data.

• A lot can change in a little over a year. Poppy Bush went from the top of the chart after the post Gulf War euphoria to lower depths than his son has thus far encountered, 18 months later.
  
  
• Clintons's numbers climbed even amidst the Lewinsky scandal and he encountered low marks almost immediately after taking office. Despite a well financed and organized right wing jihad in opposition to him, the public still warmed up to Clinton.
  
  
• An obvious conclusion - presidents are immensely popular during wartime. The numbers for Bush 43, Bush 41, and Roosevelt bear this out.
  
  
• Though Roosevelt's low mark in 1939 indicates Americans weren't gung ho to embrace WWII voluntarily.
  
  
• Since Kennedy, all our Presidents have had bouts of terrible approval numbers.