The sample’s skewed — just 47 percent claim to have voted for Obama last year versus 45 percent for McCain — but even so. Only a svelte six-point lead for mankind’s savior over the Bushitler, scourge of the Enlightened? His final approval rating was 22 percent.

Dude, is this Cheney 2012 thing happening?

Perhaps the greatest measure of Obama’s declining support is that just 50% of voters now say they prefer having him as President to George W. Bush, with 44% saying they’d rather have his predecessor. Given the horrendous approval ratings Bush showed during his final term that’s somewhat of a surprise and an indication that voters are increasingly placing the blame on Obama for the country’s difficulties instead of giving him space because of the tough situation he inherited. The closeness in the Obama/Bush numbers also has implications for the 2010 elections. Using the Bush card may not be particularly effective for Democrats anymore, which is good news generally for Republicans and especially ones like Rob Portman who are running for office and have close ties to the former President.

Effective or not, they’ll be playing that card up to and during The One’s very last hour in office. Click the image to below to watch the latest example, captured just this afternoon. And do skim the crosstabs at PPP, which are fascinating. Head to head with The One, Bush pulls 25 percent of moderates, 39 percent of independents, 48 percent of men — two points better than Obama — and 53 percent of whites. Gee, I wonder if the 39/52 split on ObamaCare has anything to do with all that. Exit question per the Gibbs clip: Didn’t Obama whine just yesterday in his speech about the economy that people need to stop playing the blame game?

Update: A fair point raised in the comments: The numbers on Obama vs. McCain don’t necessarily mean the sample’s skewed. It could mean that people have so soured on The One that they don’t even want to admit having voted for him anymore.