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I don't really think he cares.
Very few of the great presidents are popular in their time, FDR being the exception.
The election of the greatest president we have ever had was the final straw that sent the country into civil war.
I think we are starting to see a trend here. New lows every week.
Bush's Approval Rating Falls to New Low
By RON FOURNIER, AP Political Writer
8 minutes ago
More and more people, particularly Republicans, disapprove of President Bush's performance, question his character and no longer consider him a strong leader against terrorism, according to an AP-Ipsos poll do enting one of the bleakest points of his presidency.
Nearly four out of five Americans, including 70 percent of Republicans, believe civil war will break out in Iraq — the bloody hot spot upon which Bush has staked his presidency. Nearly 70 percent of people say the U.S. is on the wrong track, a 6-point jump since February.
"I'm not happy with how things are going," said Margaret Campanelli, a retiree in Norwich, Conn., who said she tends to vote Republican. "I'm particularly not happy with Iraq, not happy with how things worked with Hurricane Katrina."
Republican Party leaders said the survey explains why GOP lawmakers are rushing to distance themselves from Bush on a range of issues — port security, immigration, spending, warrantless eavesdropping and trade, for example.
The positioning is most intense among Republicans facing election in November and those considering 2008 presidential campaigns.
"You're in the position of this cycle now that is difficult anyway. In second term off-year elections, there gets to be a familiarity factor," said Sen. Sam Brownback (news, bio, voting record), R-Kan., a potential presidential candidate.
"People have seen and heard (Bush's) ideas long enough and that enters into their thinking. People are kind of, `Well, I wonder what other people can do,'" he said.
The poll suggests that most Americans wonder whether Bush is up to the job. The survey, conducted Monday through Wednesday of 1,000 people, found that just 37 percent approve of his overall performance. That is the lowest of his presidency.
Bush's job approval among Republicans plummeted from 82 percent in February to 74 percent, a dangerous sign in a midterm election year when parties rely on enthusiasm from their most loyal voters. The biggest losses were among white males.
On issues, Bush's approval rating declined from 39 percent to 36 percent for his handling of domestic affairs and from 47 percent to 43 percent on foreign policy and terrorism. His approval ratings for dealing with the economy and Iraq held steady, but still hovered around 40 percent.
Personally, far fewer Americans consider Bush likable, honest, strong and dependable than they did just after his re-election campaign.
By comparison, Presidents Clinton and Reagan had public approval in the mid 60s at this stage of their second terms in office, while Eisenhower was close to 60 percent, according to Gallup polls. Nixon, who was increasingly tangled up in the Watergate scandal, was in the high 20s in early 1974.
The AP-Ipsos poll, which has a margin of error of 3 percentage points, gives Republicans reason to worry that they may inherit Bush's political woes. Two-thirds of the public disapproves of how the GOP-led Congress is handling its job and a surprising 53 percent of Republicans give Congress poor marks.
"Obviously, it's the winter of our discontent," said Rep. Tom Cole (news, bio, voting record), R-Okla.
By a 47-36 margin, people favor Democrats over Republicans when they are asked who should control Congress.
While the gap worries Republicans, Cole and others said it does not automatically translate into GOP defeats in November, when voters will face a choice between local candidates rather than considering Congress as a whole.
In addition, strategists in both parties agree that a divided and undisciplined Democratic Party has failed to seize full advantage of Republican troubles.
"While I don't dispute the fact that we have challenges in the current environment politically, I also believe 2006 as a choice election offers Republicans an opportunity if we make sure the election is framed in a way that will keep our majorities in the House and the Senate," said Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Stung by criticism, senior officials at the White House and the RNC are reminding GOP members of Congress that Bush's approval ratings may be low, but theirs is lower and have declined at the same pace as Bush's. The message to GOP lawmakers is that criticizing the president weakens him — and them — politically.
"When issue like the internal Republican debate over the ports dominates the news it puts us another day away from all of us figuring out what policies we need to win," said Terry Nelson, a Republican consultant and political director for Bush's re-election campaign in 2004.
Bowing to ferocious opposition in Congress, a Dubai-owned company on Thursday abandoned its quest to take over operations at several U.S. ports. Bush had pledged to veto any attempt to block the transaction, pitting him against Republicans in Congress and most voters.
All this has Republican voters like Walter Wright of Fairfax Station, Va., worried for their party.
"We've gotten so carried away I wouldn't be surprised to see the Democrats take it because of discontent," he said. "People vote for change and hope for the best."
___
Associated Press writer Will Lester and AP Manager of News Surveys Trevor Tompson contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
Ipsos: http://www.ap-ipsosresults.com
I don't really think he cares.
Very few of the great presidents are popular in their time, FDR being the exception.
The election of the greatest president we have ever had was the final straw that sent the country into civil war.
I wonder what xray has to say.
The cult like following is showing fissures......
Lame Duck? Worse than that I'm afraid.
Congressional republicans are jumping ship faster than Spurs fans after a loss to the Bulls.
Laugh all you want.
I wouldn't necessarily call myself an apologist though.
I love watching you goons squirm at everything he does.
Makes my day.
"greatest president"
... while, like creationists/IDers, offers not a shred of evidence, because there is none.
Yeah... I think you will find that 90+% of the presidents in our history have been creationists.
What do you want?
Yeah I was talking about Lincoln goofball. Way to take out of context and try to make it sound like something else.
Of course... that's what people are trained to do nowadays... You arent supposed to actually reason for yourself and think about someone says... you are supposed to look for sentence fragments that make them look bad.
Bush's poll numbers have been in the tank since Katrina exposed the fact that this administration is all about politics and keeping the GOP in power, instead, of well, you know, actually governing and helping people prepare for and recover from natural disasters.
It's good to see the American people have had enough of the misbegotten war in Iraq, but I'm afraid that while there's still a buck to be made by Halliburton over there, our soldiers won't be coming home any time soon.
Nah, they've already announced that the planned withdrawal is off because of, well, as they put it, 'a recent surge in violence', although one could make the argument that this is code for 'the insurgencies (civil war) getting worse and we can't leave'.It's good to see the American people have had enough of the misbegotten war in Iraq, but I'm afraid that while there's still a buck to be made by Halliburton over there, our soldiers won't be coming home any time soon
That's so stupid. Katrina was in the bowl. Bush IS the one that did save the day in the end there with troops. Why did the governer say she need time to "think about it"?
The protocol is to ask first. Bush is trying to change the laws so he can send troops faster but they don't want the legislation?
THEN S T F U phoney democrats... your going to get burned. You can't even tap some phones and you cry about the docks. Now your going to be dealing with more job losses caused by your stupid democraptic stuff.
I hope you seriously aren't trying to say that GW is a "great president".
The inep ude of the Bush administration was readily apparent to me in his first term after the total -up that is the Iraq occupation began to sink in, and the grab-ass-ity factor has only increased over time.
I would point out that ty presidents were known as being ty presidents during their tenure, and that didn't change.
This presidency will not fare well with time and hindsight into it's stupidity. They have done and ignored a lot of things that will take years to come to fruition and when those little time bombs go off, the blame will be very easy to place.
We may get burned, but we can spell you're correctly... har.
At least your posts are good for comic relief, if not coherent thoughts. Keep 'em up.
seriously! this guy is hilarious!
Slow day entertainment-wise at the homestead?We may get burned, but we can spell you're correctly... har.
Go ahead and put a fork in Dubya already....he's done.
Does the misunderestimation ever end?
No, not even amongst republicans.
The new map of the U.S. is looking mighty BLUE
Bush's ratings are so low because the evil liberal media continues to insist on asking the wrong people what they think of the president.
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