Posted by Damozel | Meanwhile, did you know that Bush is still president? It's true. And his approval ratings, which we'd previously thought were about as low as they could go, have now seeped through the bedrock. Once the president with the highest approval ratings in the history of the Gallup polls, he is now the president with the worst. Hey, but at least he's the best at being the worst!
In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, 28% of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing; 69% disapprove. The approval rating matches the low point of his presidency, and the disapproval sets a new high for any president since Franklin Roosevelt.
The previous record of 67% was reached by Harry Truman in January 1952, when the United States was enmeshed in the Korean War.
Bush's rating has worsened amid "collapsing optimism about the economy," says Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies presidential approval. Record gas prices and a wave of home foreclosures have fueled voter angst. (USA Today)
So it's a milestone and a red-letter day for him and his administration. It's clearly time for a BUCK NAKED BLOGGERAMA!
At The Moderate Voice, Shaun Mullen writes:
President Bush now has the highest disapproval rating of any president in the 70-year history of the Gallup Poll, but that’s not the half of it.
With only a 10 percent disapproval rating following the 9/11 attacks, there has been a 59 percentage point swing in the years since with Bush now clocking a 69 percent disapproval rating.
Horse'sAss.org analyzes Bush's showing in other polls, and considers the lame duck effect, before declaring him the worst ever.
Aggregates of multiple polls (e.g. Prof. PollKatz or Pollster.com) also show Bush at the lowest point of his presidency.
So…we have a lame duck Worst. President. Ever. But consider this: at this point in the second term, Ronald Reagan was hovering around 50% approval and Bill Clinton’s approval was in the low 60%. It isn’t just a “lame duck” effect.
Does Bush’s pathetic approval/disapproval matter? From Rasmussen:
In March, as the President’s Approval Rating slipped, the number of Americans who consider themselves to be Democrats remained near the highest levels ever recorded by Rasmussen Reports.
Yeah…I guess it does a little. Besides needlessly sending our soldiers to their death and running up enormous debt for an illegal war that was fraudulently foisted upon the American people, besides the erosion of our civil liberties, the invasion of our privacy, and the approval of torture contrary to our treaties, in addition to causing massive (and, quite possibly, permanent) damage to our reputation abroad, it looks like the Bush administration has also made it downright distasteful (or, perhaps, embarrassing) to be a Republican.
And one of the commenters wonders: "What are the folks who ‘approve’ of Bush approving?"
Good question.
Digby likewise is bemused by the 28% who do approve. As she points out, this approval rating is actually 'disturbingly high.'
You're driving down a highway, minding your own business. However approximately 28 of every 100 drivers hurtling towards you at 55 to 65 mph plus are so utterly unhinged from reality they actually think Bush is doing a good job. Your life is in their hands..
At any time, a Bush-lover's gut could tell him to play "chicken" with a timid, pathetic, reality-based driver like you, a twerp who thinks - hah! - that traffic laws should be obeyed. Another could, just for the hell of it, decide to smash into another car causing a monstrous pile up you can't avoid. A third Bush supporter may have neglected to check her tires despite numerous warnings by her Bush-hating cousin that those tires look mighty old and should be replaced. Really, who could possibly have predicted a double blowout on a highway and the subsequent fatal accidents and fires?
Suddenly that 28% doesn't seem like such a low percentage, does it now, my friends?
Jonathan Singer at My DD reminds us of what this means --- or ought to mean ---to Democrats in the general election. (Yes, my fellow righteously-and-rightly-angry Hillary-supporters, I'm looking at you.)
Although George W. Bush, himself, will not be on the ballot in November, this polling underscores in the importance -- indeed the necessity -- for the Democrats to ensure that he is effectively on the ballot. This cycle should only further the tactic from 2006 of showing Republican candidates, not the least of which John McCain, alongside (and, in the case of McCain, literally hugging) Bush.
And Melissa McEwan at Shakesville points out what it ought to mean to Democrats right now.
Good thing impeachment was taken off the table by the Democrats, whose constituents' disapproval of Bush is 91%.
273 days.
Sigh.
More from Memeorandum here.
RECENT BN-POLITICS POSTINGS
Obama in Pennsylvania: More Stealth Attacks & Hypocrisy
Cutting Through the Nonsense: 10 Reasons to Vote for Hillary
America Likely to be the Loser in Pennsylvania Primary?
Hillary Picks Up 4 Super Delegates
Massive Con Job: How Bush Administration Used "Analysts" to Manipulate Public Opinion re: the War
Comments