According to this latest CNN poll, there is little love for President Bush:
The number of Americans disapproving of President Bush’s job performance has risen to the highest level of his presidency, according to the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday.
According to the poll, 53 percent of respondents said they disapproved of Bush’s performance, compared to 45 percent who approved.
The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The 53 percent figure was the highest disapproval rating recorded in the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll since Bush became president in January 2001.
The approval percentage — 45 percent — matches a low point set in late March. The 8-point gap between those who disapproved and approved was the largest recorded during Bush’s tenure.
Click here for a pop-up, via Professor Pollkatz.
I guess it is too early to suggest having oral sex with interns, but something needs to happen or this will be viewed by many as a failed Presidency. Joe Gandelman has more.
*** Update ***
Post edited to add weaselly qualifiers and a graph.
Non-Fat Latte Liberal
You won’t see a self proclaimed liberal do this often, but I think ‘failed presidency’ is over the line. Deeply unpopular perhaps, although even saying that would be jumping the gun. For me, and I think you agree with this Mr. Cole, Iraq and Afghanistan are strong, lasting, and, barring an Iraqi civil war, ultimately very positive milestones that will keep this presidency afloat in the eyes of history. Not that it couldn’t be going ALOT better but failure seems too strong.
John Cole
How about failed domestic agenda- because I agree with you on the larger points.
p.lukasiak
The real problem for Bush is that his “personal approval” numbers are tied to his “job approval” numbers. Thanx to the whole Lewinsky nonsense, Clinton’s personal approval numbers were at times 20 points or more lower than his job approval ratings.
People are beginning to finally wake up to the fact that Bush’s “leadership” image was nothing more than a necessary fantasy brought about by 9-11 (Bush’s performance in the immediate aftermath of 9-11 was far less than inspiring, but that didn’t matter — we needed a leader, and Bush was cast in the role while we all suspended disbelief for a few years.) With his personal numbers tanking right along with his job approval numbers, Bush is going to do have to do a hell of a lot more than “stay the course”, because Americans are waking up to the fact that Bush is not someone who “sticks to his principles”; he is in fact bullheaded, obstinant, and unwilling to, and apparently incapable of acknowledging even the most obvious errors that he has made.
Non-Fat Latte Liberal
The failed demostic agenda, unless it sours in big, economy-wrecking, way, isn’t anything he’ll be remembered for. The second term is looking extremely weak buit it’s not over and there was enough in the first term accomplished that failed just isn’t appropriate.
Put it this way, if he managed to reform social security and the tax code (both of which I doubt) he’d be as big as FDR and no one two steps from FDR is a failure. A dissappointment, maybe.
SomeCallMeTim
Iraq and Afghanistan are strong, lasting, and, barring an Iraqi civil war, ultimately very positive milestones
See, comments like that aren’t going to help us get rid of the “mushy-headed utopian tag.” Five to ten years from now we’ll know this more clearly, but Iraq is going to be the millstone history hangs around Bush’s neck.
brenda
His presidency was a failure the moment he embraced torture.
SeesThroughIt
Come on, John, be reasonable: It’s never too early to suggest having oral sex with interns.
Jimmy Jazz
…in the history of Iran.
Don
I’m not sure I even know what “failed presidency” means – seems to me that at best you make some lasting improvements and at worst screw up some things that are working okay. I think the big thing the W presidencey is going to be remembered for is the price tag.
Sojourner
What did I miss?
Sojourner
What did I miss?
Geek, Esq.
Iraq will be the measure of his presidency.
In 2006, the question will be “Was it worth it?” Signs point to “no”–at least according to the general public.
Jimmy Jazz
Without 9/11, shrub would have been a one term wonder like dear old dad.
[vadervoice]Search your feelings, you know it to be true.[/vadervoice]
Stormy70
Bush’s poll numbers go down every summer, and people on the right think he’s being a wuss and letting the Democrats walk all over him. We’ll see what he gets going in the fall, but I really don’t put much stock in polls. Elections are what matter, and the 2006 elections will occur after the fifth anniversary of September 11th. At that point, I might start paying attention to the polls. I know I’ve never been polled (caller ID), probably because I live in Texas. Bush’s poll numbers were consistently at 48%-49% before the election, and the media claimed no incumbent with those type of numbers would be reelected. Right. Here’s another poll for all you poll watchers.
Sojourner
So the only thing you care about are the elections? What about how badly he’s running the country. Doesn’t that matter?
Stormy70
See, I don’t think the country is being run that badly. I like Congress locked up, and not meddling in my life. Right now, I’m more concerned with the property rights the liberal judges on the Supreme Court just took away. The War will take time, and I am patient. I let the troops know I support them (it’s private how I accomplish that feat.) Plus, it is summer movie time, and the living is easy in Texas.
Sojourner
So you don’t care about the high unemployment, rising number of Americans with no health insurance, the growing number of children in poverty, our declining status in science and education?
I guess that’s what distinguishes the conservatives from the liberals.
ppgaz
Strong and lasting? What is this, a damned Levitra commercial?
Really, a comment like that just takes all the air of integrity right out of the room.
First of all, nobody knows how Iraq is going to turn out. Nobody, including, you, me, and the other guy. Dr. Pangloss, please? Things are looking really good, except for all the things that look really bad.
Second, there is no body of evidence in history, or anywhere else, to indicate that a good outcome — which as I always note, is considered by me to be a stable, liberal democracy friendly to US and allied interests — is likely. Sorry, but faith and resolve don’t feed the bulldog. Reality bites. Can somebody list for me the names of Arab countries that have implemented stable, liberal democracies? ( ticking of clock …..)
Third, to get us from here, to there, you need the same potatoheads who have turned the situation into a borderline clusterfuck, complete with a collapse of public confidence, suddenly to become statesmen and geniuses, and turn the thing around. The same guys who have made three years worth of absurd pronouncements and malapropisms, to suddenyl start getting it right. Uh, wake me up when that happens. Meanwhile I’ll be practicing my Rip Van Winkle imitation.
The best thing you can hope for right now is a stabilization, a demonstrated ability by the Iraquis themselves to govern and maintain order, so that we can pull back. I say, that is the best thing you can get right now. And that is going to be damned hard to do, and it absolutely has to be done. Doing less is not an option.
Once you reach that phase, if you can, then you have to expect that good fortune gets you the rest of the way, and I am not seeing a lot of that in that theater.
Mind you, sustained effort over a long period of time … which is absolutely essential … depends on public support. Right now, that support is getting harder and harder to come by. And the people who want to drum it up have burned their credibility.
From where I sit, it’s a helluva problem. I was against this war in October 2002, and I haven’t seen one thing to change my mind. But I also realize that failure is not an option. The only way I can sustain your enthusiasm for the thing is to insist that reality about what is at stake there now, notwithstanding the fact that we created this mess, trumps outrage over how we got here.
carpeicthus
I don’t put much stock in polls! Here’s a poll!
Stormy70
Hey, I play to the crowd. This crowd sites polls in every other post, so I give them what they want. Polls for everyone!