Newsweek Poll: How Low Can Bush Go?
President Bush registers the lowest approval rating of his presidency — making him the least popular president since Nixon — in the new NEWSWEEK Poll.
By Marcus Mabry, Newsweek
Updated: 10:49 a.m. CT June 21, 2007
June 21, 2007 - In 19 months, George W. Bush will leave the White House for the last time. The latest NEWSWEEK Poll suggests that he faces a steep climb if he hopes to coax the country back to his side before he goes. In the new poll, conducted Monday and Tuesday nights, President Bush’s approval rating has reached a record low. Only 26 percent of Americans, just over one in four, approve of the job the 43rd president is doing; while, a record 65 percent disapprove, including nearly a third of Republicans.
The new numbers—a 2 point drop from the last NEWSWEEK Poll at the beginning of May—are statistically unchanged, given the poll’s 4 point margin of error. But the 26 percent rating puts Bush lower than Jimmy Carter, who sunk to his nadir of 28 percent in a Gallup poll in June 1979. In fact, the only president in the last 35 years to score lower than Bush is Richard Nixon. Nixon’s approval rating tumbled to 23 percent in January 1974, seven months before his resignation over the botched Watergate break-in.
The war in Iraq continues to drag Bush down. A record 73 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Bush has done handling Iraq. Despite “the surge” in U.S. forces into Baghdad and Iraq’s western Anbar province, a record-low 23 percent of Americans approve of the president’s actions in Iraq, down 5 points since the end of March.
But the White House cannot pin his rating on the war alone. Bush scores record or near record lows on every major issue: from the economy (34 percent approve, 60 percent disapprove) to health care (28 percent approve, 61 percent disapprove) to immigration (23 percent approve, 63 percent disapprove). And—in the worst news, perhaps, for the crowded field of Republicans hoping to succeed Bush in 2008—50 percent of Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of terrorism and homeland security. Only 43 percent approve, on an issue that has been the GOP’s trump card in national elections since 9/11.
(Continued here.)
By Marcus Mabry, Newsweek
Updated: 10:49 a.m. CT June 21, 2007
June 21, 2007 - In 19 months, George W. Bush will leave the White House for the last time. The latest NEWSWEEK Poll suggests that he faces a steep climb if he hopes to coax the country back to his side before he goes. In the new poll, conducted Monday and Tuesday nights, President Bush’s approval rating has reached a record low. Only 26 percent of Americans, just over one in four, approve of the job the 43rd president is doing; while, a record 65 percent disapprove, including nearly a third of Republicans.
The new numbers—a 2 point drop from the last NEWSWEEK Poll at the beginning of May—are statistically unchanged, given the poll’s 4 point margin of error. But the 26 percent rating puts Bush lower than Jimmy Carter, who sunk to his nadir of 28 percent in a Gallup poll in June 1979. In fact, the only president in the last 35 years to score lower than Bush is Richard Nixon. Nixon’s approval rating tumbled to 23 percent in January 1974, seven months before his resignation over the botched Watergate break-in.
The war in Iraq continues to drag Bush down. A record 73 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Bush has done handling Iraq. Despite “the surge” in U.S. forces into Baghdad and Iraq’s western Anbar province, a record-low 23 percent of Americans approve of the president’s actions in Iraq, down 5 points since the end of March.
But the White House cannot pin his rating on the war alone. Bush scores record or near record lows on every major issue: from the economy (34 percent approve, 60 percent disapprove) to health care (28 percent approve, 61 percent disapprove) to immigration (23 percent approve, 63 percent disapprove). And—in the worst news, perhaps, for the crowded field of Republicans hoping to succeed Bush in 2008—50 percent of Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of terrorism and homeland security. Only 43 percent approve, on an issue that has been the GOP’s trump card in national elections since 9/11.
(Continued here.)
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1 Comments:
The real question should be how low can Congressional approval go. Last poll I saw put Congress approval at 14%! Talk about congress as the opposite of progress!!
That only makes sense because all the Democrats have done is just go after people in the administration whether its Karl Rove or Alberto Gonzales or Scooter Libby or Dick Cheney or Bush or members of the military brass. They haven't enacted hardly any legislation in 2007.
Now, we hear that Congress wants to 'deal with the problem of talk radio'. Right, dissent from the Washington orthodoxy cannot be tolerated. Talk radio is the only place where the people can voice their opinion without it being edited (except if the host hangs up on you, I suppose). Try sending a letter to the editor of the Star Tribune that does not fit with their philosophy and see if it gets edited or even published at all. Internet blogs are regulated by the webmasters and can lead to editing of opinions of its readers. I have posted on Vox Verax some stinging opinions which I have been told should have not been allowed to be posted. So, now we need to get rid of speech that the almighty government doesn't like. It might not be too long before the people go to war against this government if freedoms keep being restricted in this country. Elections and marches won't be enough.
If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of a foreign enemy is quite true - it is the enemy within, an overreaching and aggressive government will result in tyranny and oppression. With the ban happy legislatures narrowing which behaviors are allowed and which aren't and with Congress wanting to suppress the voice of the people because they don't like talk radio, we are entering a new and dangerous chapter in this country. If the government can suppress speech it doesn't like, we are all in danger of oppression.
Perhaps that would make Joe Mayer happy. He's an avowed admirer of Hugo Chavez and Chavez has now taken over the media in Venezuela in order to suppress the last opposition to him. I'm sure Mayer would be more than happy to have opposing viewpoints to his own suppressed in this country, as well.
The president's approval rating is only a small part of what concerns me. His admin has certainly pushed the envelope on many things, but Congress is looking to go even further. The failings of our government should always be a target of criticism.
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