And the numbers continue to get worse:
It has been weeks since Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast; since gas prices began spiking to record highs; and since Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, held her antiwar vigil outside President Bush’s Texas ranch. But, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, the fortunes of the Bush administration and the Republican Party have not yet begun to recover.
For the first time in the poll, Bush’s approval rating has sunk below 40 percent, while the percentage believing the country is heading in the right direction has dipped below 30 percent. In addition, a sizable plurality prefers a Democratic-controlled Congress, and just 29 percent think Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers is qualified to serve on the nation’s highest court.
“Any way you slice this data, I think these are just terrible sets of numbers,” said Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted this survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff.
The poll shows that Bush’s approval rating stands at 39 percent, a new low for the president. In the last NBC/Wall Street Journal survey, which was released in mid-September, 40 percent approved of Bush’s job performance while 55 percent disapproved. In addition, just 28 percent believe the country is headed in the right direction, another all-time low in Bush’s presidency.
We have observed the White House operate in Arrogance/Hubristic mode, and with a flurry of indictments about to hammer the White House, and the House and Senate leadership under investigation (and I don’t care if they are bullshit indictments/charges- they are indictments, and at the very least, a distraction), let’s just say I am not looking forward to watching this place operate in Bunker Mentality Mode.
Doug
I don’t know why anyone runs for a second term. It always seems to go something like this. At least Reagan and Clinton were re-elected handily which gave them some buffer against Iran-Contra and Lewinsky, respectively.
Bush squeaked into office only to get pummeled by Social Security (his fault), Katrina (not his fault), spiking energy prices (not his fault – except perhaps in an indirect kind of way), a ballooning deficit (his fault), DeLay, Frist & Rove corruption scandals (mostly not his fault, probably), continuing misery in Iraq (his fault), and outrage over government intervention in the Schiavo matter (partially his fault).
srv
I think Iraq was a trigger for the start of the increases, so no slack for him there.
I hope Harriet gets defeated, just for the impact that would have. The only way to keep these guys from doing more damage is to keep them paralyzed. Good thing for the Dems with Kerry not winning, can you imagine how long that honeymoon would have lasted?
searp
Bush’s support among blacks has fallen to 2%. I bet Jefferson Davis would have polled better.
JoeTx
Doug,
I beg to differ on the “not his fault” statements. He is the “CIO of America”. It is his job to LEAD and MANAGE “the Company” so to speak. His job is to install qualified personnel in the departments that create and implement policy. It is his job to lead his party that is in power. If there is corruption, he could set an example and lead the investigations to route out that corruption. Congress has not done its job in ridding Washington of all the corruption that is going on right now, other than Abramoff/Indian/Casino investigation. Bush as leader could direct congress to do its job.
This hasn’t happened, Bush has sat back and let others run the government into the ground, taking us all with it. Where is his leadership? Other than words and photo ops, where is the action?
In 2000, Bush promised to bring Integrity back to Washington, he promised a “humble foreign policy” that would not get into “nation building”, he promised to run the government like a well oiled business. Well, I guess he did fulfill that last promise, but the companies he used as models for his goverment turned out to be Enron, Tyco and Worldcom!
Steve S
Yeah, the price of a gallon of gas is primarily Bush’s fault. Oh, I’m sure it would have been higher anyway, but not quite this high.
Although what really insenses me is that he keeps talking about more corporate welfare to the oil companies, when they are making record profit margins. Doesn’t matter though, I heard one of the oil company CEOs said they didn’t need more oil refineries… as the price goes up people will start buying more fuel efficient cars and the market will balance out demand.
It was a fair point… It’s just too bad Republicans don’t understand free markets.
Well, we can look forward to 2006, the Sequel… a long year of false terror alerts and attempts to scare the population. Standard modus operandi for the republican criminals.
Mumon
I look forward to them getting out of office. It’s time to let the earthlings deal with things…
Mike
Biased polls and media are to blame. The numbers will turn around again once the population sees through the BS that they are being fed.
Mike S
You have that backwards. The public is finally seeing through the BS that they have been getting for the last 5 years.
JWeidner
So a tandem team of a Dem and a Repub perform the poll
and still the claim is that it’s the poll’s fault for being biased? When is a poll NOT biased, in your opinion? Or are we witnessing a massive, coordinated effort by secret underground lefties to shape the debate through puppet Republicans?
Gray
J.C. missed the worst (hmm, ok, imho best) numbers:
“In what may turn out to be one of the biggest free-falls in the history of presidential polling, President Bush’s job-approval rating among African Americans has dropped to 2 percent, according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/10/13/BL2005101300885.html
2%! How many african americans are members of the GOP? Do the numbers match?
Sinequanon
Which indictments, exactly, do you believe might be bullshit? I haven’t found a one that hasn’t been completely credible against any one lately. Therefore, no BS.
Harry Atkinson
You need to also see the new Pew and Fox News Polls. Both posted “lowest ever” figures for His Ineptitude today.
So how soon before The Right discovers that Bush is really a New England Liberal in cowboy drag and starts to run against him? After all, it was only because of his incompetence that the grand design to went haywire.
Right, righties?
ppGaz
Those of you who get a chance to see MSNBC Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight are going to get several delicious treats.
You’ll see Scott McClellan completely lose control of the WH press briefing, trying to blame reporters for focussing on the “side issue” of religion in the Miers nomination (honest to God, I am not making this up) …. and claiming that the Bush-Soldier tele-rally today was not “scripted”, when in fact the rehearsal and the scripting were not only caught on tape but SHOWN on national television for the world to see …. Olbermann pointing out that the president’s approval rating among blacks is at 2% with a +-3% margin of error, leading Olbermann to wonder whether the actual approval rating might be NEGATIVE.
Laugh, or cry? One can almost feel sorry for these hapless bumbleheads now, they are so out of step and out of material.
Harry Atkinson
I’m telling you, the right is going to go after this Bush fellow. Watch how it goes these next few weeks. They’ve had it with this guy.
The irony is that the right could very well steal Bush as an issue from the left.
Thaddeus McHannon
As Doug noted, a large part of this is with second terms in general. Particularly, when the second team comes on board, they’re all usually worse at their jobs than the people whom they replaced. No surprise. I was first-team on my college football team. The guys on the second squad were just terrible.
Searp: I would be cautious in reading much into this particular poll result. The Pew poll released this very day (http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=259) shows only a minor drop in support of Bush by blacks.
JoeTX: he claims to be the CEO of America, not the CIO. If he was the latter, he could just worry about the computers not working, and the latest email virus.
Mike: I completely agree. Once Karl Rove, Lewis Libby, Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, Jack Abramoff, David Safavian, Larry Franklin, and other officials are all in prison, the American people will see through the bullsh*t they are being fed.
Rocky Smith
Bill Clinton’s lowest rating was 35%. Remember that? I didn’t think so.
Dexter
I’ve got to think the new Iraqi constitution will help with these numbers. It certainly sounds like preparations for that are going reasonably well, if you listen to the politicians there and our soldiers.
With no election anytime soon, I don’t see how approval numbers make all that much difference right now.
Dexter
You’re living in a left-wing fantasy world if you believe it. Much more likely that none will go to jail and the Dems will have to retract their claims about “treason”, a “culture of corruption”, and the rest. Of course, they won’t.
B. Ross
Boo-hoo-hoo.
They won’t go to jail due to all the cronies on the court: BUT–how many will be indicted? Which ones?
Any interesting unindicted co-conspirators, like “Fuck You” Big Dick Cheney?
B. Ross
So sweet that none of you seems to worry about the massive bleeding deficit (now largely owned by the Chinese), poisoned air, poisoned water, Kenny-Boy jogging around unindicted, Osama Bin Laden still on the loose, total government incompetence, lying about WMDs in order to start a war which killed nearly 2 thousand post-born Americans, and fifty to a hundred thousand or more post-born Iraqis, plus politically corrupt Delay and Frist, all the Junior Bushist moral and fiscal bankruptcy, wah di doo dah . . . wah di doo dah . . .
Dexter
Who really cares about approval ratings in the second term?
It’s all bs anyway. No way of knowing how legitimate or representative the sample actually is. They can make it say whatever they want.