President George W. Bush in a final press conference on Monday acknowledged he made some mistakes in the White House, but most Americans – at least for now – are a lot more critical than that.

Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Americans say Bush is one of the five worst presidents in U.S. history, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Just six percent (6%) say he was one of the five best, and 34% place him somewhere in between.

Republicans aren’t much help to the retiring 62-year-old GOP president. While predictably 81% of Democrats rate Bush as one of the five worst presidents, so do 20% of Republicans. Nearly two-thirds of Republicans (65%) put Bush in the somewhere-in-between category, while only 11% say he was one of the five best chief executives.

Among voters not affiliated with either major party, 62% rate Bush as one of the five worst presidents, 31% somewhere in between and two percent (2%) one of the five best.

In August, a month before Wall Street’s financial problems began hitting the front pages, 41% of Americans said Bush will go down in history as the worst U.S. president ever, but 50% disagreed.

A plurality (41%) say Bush will be best remembered for the war in Iraq, followed by 16% who say his response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and 14% for the economy. Six percent (6%) list the response to Hurricane Katrina and two percent (2%) his role in trying to achieve peace in the Middle East.

For 51% of Democrats, the Iraq war is the chief element of Bush’s legacy, a view shared by 42% of unaffiliateds and just 26% of Republicans. Similar numbers of Republicans give equal weight to his response to 9/11 and his handling of the war on terror. Democrats and those unaffiliated with a major party are more than twice as likely as Republicans to rate the economy as what Bush will be best remembered for.

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Even for the accomplishment on which Bush prides himself most, fighting terrorism to keep the country safe from further attacks, he comes up short. “All these [political] debates will matter not if there is another attack on the homeland,” he said in his valedictory press conference. But while 38% say Bush has made America safer, 47% disagree and the rest are not sure.

In the first survey on war on terror issues this year, 48% said the Untied States is safer today than it was before the September 11 terrorist attacks, while 36% disagreed. Only 26% of adults, however, believe America will be a safer place by the end of Barack Obama’s first year as president. While Bush has the distinction of being part of one of only two father-son presidential teams, he suffers in comparison with his dad, President George H.W. Bush, who served from 1989 to 1993. Just 11% say the current occupant of the White House is a better president than his father was, while 56% feel the opposite way. Twenty-five percent (25%) rate the two men about the same.

For December, the final full month of his presidency, 13% of American adults said they Strongly Approved of the way Bush performed his job as president. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapproved.

As for his own political party, 77% say Bush hurt the Republicans, while eight percent (8%) say he helped them and the same number (8%) think his presidency had no impact.

What do Republicans think? Fifty-seven percent (57%) say he hurt the party, while 14% say he helped it. Seventeen percent (17%) say he had no impact, and 13% are undecided.

Eighty-nine percent (89%) of Democrats and 82% of those not affiliated with either party say Bush hurt the GOP.

Bush is scheduled to give a final television address to the nation on Thursday night.

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