Bush Rebounding? Nope

by DemFromCT

So there's the first of the 20-somethings. Harris (telephone) has Bush at 29%, and the 31-34% range of the other polls has to expand. This is lower not in a statistically meaningful way, but in the way that 2500 killed in Iraq is different than, say, 2431.

Bush Dips Into the 20s

President Bush’s job-approval rating has fallen to its lowest mark of his presidency, according to a new Harris Interactive poll. Of 1,003 U.S. adults surveyed in a telephone poll, 29% think Mr. Bush is doing an “excellent or pretty good” job as president, down from 35% in April and significantly lower than 43% in January. Approval ratings for Congress overall also sank, and now stand at 18%.

Roughly one-quarter of U.S. adults say “things in the country are going in the right direction,” while 69% say “things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track.” This has been the trend since January, when 33% said the nation was heading in the right direction. Iraq remains a key concern for the general public, as 28% of Americans said they consider Iraq to be one of the top two most important issues the government should address, up from 23% in April. The immigration debate also prompted 16% of Americans to consider it a top issue, down from 19% last month, but still sharply higher from 4% in March.

The 69% wrong track (a huge number in a vital category) now includes conservatives.

"Astonished." "Outrageous." "Troublesome." "This adds to the problem the president has."

And those weren't Democrats talking.

Conservative voters, who have driven President Bush's job approval ratings into the low 30s as they split with him over his handling of issues such as the Dubai ports deal and immigration, threatened Thursday to push the president's standing even lower with the latest revelations about the National Security Agency and ordinary Americans' telephone calls.

Several small-government Republicans and independents who have been supporters of the president expressed deep dismay and anger at revelations the government is building a database of tens of millions of telephone numbers dialed between Americans not suspected of any wrongdoing, as part of its broad anti-terrorism effort.

The end result is pressure over NSA that wouldn't have happened a year ago.

Fresh disclosures yesterday in USA Today about the scale of domestic surveillance -- the most extensive yet known involving ordinary citizens and residents -- touched off a bipartisan uproar against a politically weakened President Bush. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) vowed to haul telephone companies before his committee under oath to ferret out details the Bush administration refuses to supply, and more than 50 House Democrats signed a letter demanding a criminal investigation by a special counsel.

Oh, and while we're at it, seniors are unsettled, too, about the Medicare program. And so are ex-urban commuters, over gas prices.

Sims voted for President George W. Bush and Representative James Gerlach, Republicans both, in 2004. Now that her family's monthly gasoline budget has more than doubled -- to $1,000 -- from last year, she says Democrats may do more to promote cheaper alternative fuels.

This suggests we have not yet hit Bush's floor. That's because the floor doesn't exist the way it used to. And if you think 29% is the lowest you'll ever see, think again. That would be to misunderestimate Bush's ability to be a uniter and not a divider.

Comments

[DemFromCT]

Balance this with this:

Still, Republican pollsters are watching reaction within their own party closely.

"About 14 percent to 15 percent of Americans would be qualified as serious libertarians and a significant portion of those are Republicans," said pollster Scott Rasmussen. "And they will be very bothered by this.

"This president is going to be judged historically by the situation in Iraq primarily," Rasmussen said. "I don't think in the long run this does anything to overturn that as the significant legacy of his administration. But it could have significant implications for the last couple of years. If it raises serious concerns, we could see an even bigger drop in support among his base.

"If, in fact, the federal government with the cooperation of big business was monitoring lots of phone calls among ordinary citizens, that has the opportunity to shift perceptions dramatically," he said. "It's a bad thing for the president, no matter what."

[DemFromCT]

from National Journal on drug plan and seniors:

Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, further argued that satisfaction levels could easily falter as the program changes. The overcrowded market of Medicare drug plans has yet to shake out, he said, noting that some plans are likely to leave the program, while others could alter which prescription drugs they offer and raise prices. "What plans charge in year two, and the benefits they offer, can look very different," he said. "This is not the real test."

Meanwhile, those participants with the highest drug costs are headed for a lapse in coverage -- the so-called "doughnut hole" -- within the next nine months. And independent pharmacists claim that slow and insufficient reimbursements from the drug plans may force them out of business, causing access problems in rural areas.

[Mimikatz]

According to the Journal, 75% think the country is on the wrong track. That really means evryone but the Bushbots, (although I have long suspected that some of the wrong-trackers are conservatives who think the country is too licentious, sleazy and godless).

[Crab Nebula]

I used to think it was impossible he'd drop below 32. I love being wrong about this stuff. Whoopeee

I want to find out if people out there thought that a successful Iraq war would keep gas prices low. Seems pretty safe to say that corruption stories is a factor, but I want to know more about economic disillusionment.

[marky]

I could see him under 25% in a week. Remember, gravity is a force that accelerates a fall.