The Narrative Continued: Not Up To The Job

by DemFromCT

People really don't linke Bush very much. They don't like him and they don't trust him. They don't think he cares about them. And they don't think he's up to the job. In addition to the Gallup poll (presented 2 days ago), blogmate Plutonium Page draws our attention this this AP-Ipsos poll:

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 documenting 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 GOP. "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 paid-off pundits can blather all they want to about the 'legislative triumphs' of the Bush second term, but this President is an established loser with the Dubai deal, and a perceived loser by the American people. Once Republicans come around to seeing him the way the rest of America sees him, his support will shrivel like a dried up raisin. And this ain't science fiction. it's happening before our eyes. The snide comments are creeping in to the talking head shows: "how can a weak President get X or Y done..." Watch the late night comics, or the Daily Show, always ahead of the curve. And especially watch the Republicans in Congress.

And there's not a thing happening you haven't read here first.

Bonus: For more on how low Bush can go, See Prof. Charles Franklin at Political Arithmetik.

Comments

[DemFromCT]

I love this part:

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.

They'll all hang separately because they all hung together.

[DemFromCT]

And for the "oh, but the Democrats are divided" crowd:

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."

[jwp]

good news is sort of against my nature

but I was heartened to see a Congressman from California openly call for withdrawal from Iraq a couple days ago

first one from California (amazingly enough)

a start

[margaret koscielny]

None of this disillusionment on the part of citizens is going to work to elect Democrats in 2006 unless we make certain that the voting machines throughout the country are leaving a paper record of votes. This is why everyone of you who cares about the future of this country and the preservation of our sacred right to vote and have our votes counted, accurately, should be calling your local supervisors of elections, as I did, yesterday, and holding them to account by asking if the machines being used have this paper record, as well as what safeguards they are using to protect the machines from tampering.

The mechanics of the vote are as important as the sentiment behind the vote. Hold their feet to the fire!

[Mimikatz]

The finding that most Americans don't think Bush cares about "people like me" should be a key building block in the Dems' message. There are a number of key budget votes coming up, particularly on the tax side. The Estate Tax may be dead until after the midterms (or even until 2009, when it really will need to be fixed) but the extension of the dividend tax cut is on the table again, and of course a fix for the Alternative Minimum Tax. Only one is possible at all, and ought to be offset with other revenue.

The GOP really cares only about a tiny sliver of the population--the top 1%. maybe just the top .1%, who have seen their incomes rise astronomically while everyone else treads water or worse. The Dems really need to make peace with their populist roots and capitalize on these issues. It isn't "class warfare," it is "caring about people like you." And the Dems are in a far, far better position to make that argument, if they will jsut screw up their courage and do it.

[emptywheel]

Mimikatz

You're right, but we've got ground to make up before we can get into just "care about people like you." When I was in SC a few days before the 2004 election, I met only 2 kinds of voters: religious conservatives, and libertarian conservatives. The couple my family and I had MOST in common with were working poor (they work two jobs, a middle-of-the-night office cleaning job and a drive 200+ miles a day to clean portajohns job) racists (though secular and not terribly xenophobic and therefore very welcoming to me and my white in-laws). They were going to vote for Bush because, "If I win the lottery some day, I don't want Democrats to take my money." Whether it's TV or something else, the notion that an honest laborer ought to be able to provide for her family has been replaced, in a lot of places, by the elusive promise that some day you might strike it rich. That is, I think the American dream has shifted away from the middle class dream to the ultra rich dream.

[Mimikatz]

There are a lot of elusive voters in places like SC, but we will have an easier time in places like NC and MO. People smarter than I will have to figure out how to pitch the message, but it sounds from these polls like much more than a majority does feel that Bush doesn't care about people like them. The Dems have to develop a narrative embodying their ability to do something for these folks to translate those feelings into votes. I really think there is a majority out there for whom terrorism and fear don't trump everything, and it grows as we get farther from 9/11. And local issues are more important in congressional races than the presidency.

But I'm a congenital optimist.

[Junior]

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