War Stories

by DemFromCT

There's a new NBC/WSJ poll out, which cuts through the media fog  and WH spin, and tells the story:

WASHINGTON -- Americans remain unhappy with President Bush, Congress and the Iraq war, but the administration's effort to stem the erosion in public support has had some success, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll has found.

The Journal/NBC poll shows Mr. Bush with a weak 39% job approval rating, while 55% disapprove his performance. But that represents a slight improvement over Mr. Bush's showing in November, when 38% approved and 57% disapproved. The Journal/NBC telephone poll of 1,006 adults, conducted Dec. 9-12, has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

In general, do you approve (A) or disapprove (D)  of the job that George W. Bush is doing as president?

                 A     D
     09/05    40    55
    10/05    39    54
    11/05    38    57
    12/05    39    55

Now go ahead and tell me how he's 'rebounded'. Start from the beginning: 'Americans remain unhappy'. Any 'Bush bounce', 'we stopped the hemorrhaging' or other nonsense from Bush spinmeisters needs to be met head on with reality. This is an unpopular war run by an unpopular President. 39% is an awful number. And this isn't a 'slight improvement', it's completely within the margin of error. Finally, convincing wavering Republicans and indies to wait until the election is over has only stopped Bush from dropping , not raised him up. That's an achievement? Says who?

Check some of the other parameters (e.g., more confident or less confident that the war in Iraq will come to a successful conclusion?) and you'll see little movement since May (nnow at 39/50 for more/less; was at 40/50 in May).

The biggest non-story in the news is Bush's comeback. He's a miserable failure and stays mired in mediocrity in the polls. The only thing he has going for him is that he is America's President, and Americans want America to succeed. Alas, he's brought scandal to America, and the other shoes in Wargate and Abramoff are yet to drop. Bush's supporters, in the press and elsewhere are kidding themselves if they think that doesn't matter.

Comments

[Melanie]

"Like a rock," as in dropping like a....

[Frank Pero]

I was not surprised when President Bush admits that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake, because the information to him in regard WMD was not truth!. But even so, he continue his speach by saying that after all, was good to get rid of Saddam hussein, because he was a danger to the USA. How can be Saddam Hussein be a danger to the USA, if he didn't have WMD?. This is all too much for me!!. Get out of Iraq, and take President Bush to the world criminal tribunal, for ordering the killing of so many innocents people in Iraq, and for the death of innocents young Marines, who they sorth were doing the right thing for America.

[chef]

There was plenty of intel debunking Saddam's arsenal, but the real fiction was always that Iraqi WMD posed an immediate and existential threat to the US. Bush is still artfully conflating the belief that SH had some WMD with the notion that the peril was grave.

The Office of Special Plans had no real purpose other than to foster this confusion, and not incidentally, scare the American public into endorsing a pre-emptive strike.

[Pug]

On MSNBC this was reported this morning by the pretty little news gal as, "President Bush's job approval ratings are on the rebound." She then went on to point out that his approval rating was up by a whopping one point.

The press was thrilled to report on Bush's free fall in the polls. Now they are dying to go with the "he's bouncing back" line. Chris Matthews is already flogging it, as if a 42% approval rating is great or something.