Who do Americans blame for the economic recession: Obama or Bush?

Maybe that “Miss Me Yet?” billboard of former President George W. Bush that went up in Minnesota a few months ago is a bit premature.

It turns out that, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday, the American people still blame Mr. Bush more than President Obama for the state of the economy. The poll found that 42 percent of Americans blame Bush “a great deal” versus 26 percent who blame Mr. Obama. Another 33 percent blame Bush “a moderate amount” versus 24 percent for Obama.

That’s a total “blame count” of 75 percent for Bush and 50 percent for Obama.

The bad news for Obama is that the numbers are worse for him now than they were last July, when only 14 percent blamed him a great deal and 18 percent blamed him moderately. The numbers for Bush have improved slightly.

Maybe it also means that voters won’t take out their frustration on Obama’s party quite so harshly this November than if they blamed him more for the nation’s economic problems. But Democrats shouldn’t breathe easy just yet. Obama’s approval rating on the economy is at 37 percent, with 61 percent disapproving, per Gallup. His overall job approval sits at just below 50 percent.

“The ‘blame’ data suggest that these job ratings could be even lower were Obama more widely perceived as directly responsible for the economy’s problems,” Gallup analyst Lydia Saad writes.