I think I see Marcus's point, Doomer. If you said in a US context that "a lot of people didn't like Reagan, and a lot of people didn't like Nixon," many Republicans would object to the "implied comparison" of Reagan with Nixon -- since the first was merely a controversial President, while the second resigned from the office in disgrace.

Similarly, many Democrats today would object if you said "people dislike Obama, just as people disliked Carter." (Not that Carter was as much of an asshole as Nixon, but Carter was a one-term President who lost by a huge margin in 1980. So if you speak of Obama and Carter in the same breath, можно принять это за предсказание о выборах ноября 2012.)