A confidence gap

February 14, 2006

The latest USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll includes many of the usual questions and responses, but the poll added a question that stood out.

As for the routine matter of the president’s approval rating, Bush is down to just 39% support. That’s down four points since before the State of the Union and is the lowest approval rating for the president in four months. (Post-SOTU bounce? Not so much.)

On Iraq, 55% of Americans now believe starting the war was “a mistake.” That’s up five points since early January and is the second highest result since Gallup began asking the question nearly three years ago.

Which segues nicely into to the new question on the poll.

How confident are you in the Bush administration’s ability to handle the situation in Iran — very confident, somewhat confident, not too confident, or not at all confident?

A combined 55% of Americans say they’re not confident in the president’s ability to address the situation in Iran (27% said “not too confident and 28% said they’re “not at all confident”).

The president who won a second term based on his alleged ability to address international crises has lost the confidence of most Americans on the very issue that propelled him to victory. Can Bush regain that confidence? Short of abandoning every instinct, position, and aide, it’s hard to see how.

The thing about that question on Iran is that the phrase “handle the situation in Iran” can mean a lot of different things, depending on how you already view the president, among other factors. How much do you want to bet that to people who think George Bush can do no wrong (i. e. the 9% who are “confident”), when they hear “handling the situation in Iran” the picture that pops into their heads is of a mushroom cloud?

  • So much for the “national security” gambit in 2006 (not to mention historical instances of Demcrats actually declaring and winning wars and military objectives in the 20th century, e.g., WWI, WWII, Korea, whilst Republicans lied and lost, e.g., Vietnam).

    Maybe the Regal Moron should unleash an armed Dick-head Cheney in Iran?

  • when they hear “handling the situation in Iran” the picture that pops into their heads is of a mushroom cloud?

    that would certainly be an accurate depiction of most of the regular commentors over at little green footballs.

  • I can’t help but wonder If there even is a situation in Iran or if most of it isn’t Shrublican fabrication to give us a visual enemy in Bush’s perpetual War On Terror. We won’t be compliant or tolerant of Bush/Cheney manipulations of the “law” unless they can hold up a visible enemy for us to be afraid of. America has grown weary of Bush’s frequent injections of fear of Bin Laden when he hasn’t even made more than a token effort to catch or kill the terrorist of the century. Now our fear level is running down so Bush/Cheney have to offer up a new threat. This is all coming from a dumbass that set a lot of this terrorist stuff and the confrontations with North Korea and Iran in motion with his ‘Axis of Evil” speech not to mention his illegal invasion of another country. Everybody is just going along with it in a daze just like before Iraq. Bush and Cheney are smart enough to realize the momentum of their administration is grinding down to a halt and they want to act on Iran before they can no longer get anyone to support them. Iran will be a whole new diversion away from all their other crimes and sins. Who will they get to fight Iran? They’ve already broken our army. A word on Cheney, all shooting suspects should now be able to put off questioning by law enforcement officials until the next day, or at least enough time to get the story straight and sober up. Why should we stop with shooting suspects when cars are weapons too? Yeah, if it’s good for the country and obviously DICK wouldn’t do anything not good for the country, then anybody that hits or kill someone with a car doesn’t have to talk to a cop until the next day either. Same reasoning.

  • Before the Iraq invasion, we were told Saddam
    was an imminent threat to our nation, that we
    would be greeted as liberators, that the war would
    be a cakewalk lasting six months or a little more,
    and that all would be paid for by Iraqi oil. Still,
    some 30% of the American people were against
    it. And now, three years after this horrible disaster,
    only an additional 25% think starting the war was
    a mistake????? What in God’s name are the
    other 45% of the American people thinking?

  • In response to #5, they’re not thinking. It may interfere with watching American Idol or Survivor.

  • “I can’t help but wonder If there even is a situation in Iran or if most of it isn’t Shrublican fabrication to give us a visual enemy in Bush’s perpetual War On Terror.” – tko

    Nope, it’s a Saudi generated distraction. They want to get us focused on the Shia regimes of Syria and Iran rather then the Wahabbi dominated regime of Saudi Arabia. Remember, most of the 9/11 highjackers were from Saudi Arabia, and good old boy Osama bin Ladin is a Wahabbist.

    And of course Bushes elder and younger are bought agents of the House of Saud.

  • How confident are you in the Bush administration’s ability to handle the situation in Iran

    The above question is not the one to ask if you are trying to determine the level of support for the President’s future decisions. I support the President’s war on the terrorist savages but I do not think any administration can handle this situation now after the relentless lies of the media re his reasons for going into Iraq. (see # 4 above)

    That is a shame because the leaders of Iran want to wipe Israel off the map and hate everything about western culture and appear crazy enough to suicide their country to hurt us.

    The only solution to Iran is boots on the ground and I do not think President Bush has the political capital left.

    In a nutshell Iran will become an atomic power.

  • PEOPLE (AMERICANS) SHOULD KNOW!We are at the tipping point that Cheney/Rumsfeld feared from “their Vietnam War experience.” The point when what we call the media starts turning against the war and even directly against this administration. They thought it out beforehand. They already have their patsy or fall guy in place, Herr Shrubmeister. In other words, we are at a point of change and with this administration on the ropes they will either have to stage a national crisis to impose martial law to stop an election or witness a dramatic shift in the makeup of congress. The preferred route will eventually lead to proceedings to unseat our “King”. Then we’ll work our way through his court. I would urge lawmakers to make a stand now on Bush’s powers to attack Iran. I would urge lawmakers to impose heavy punitive taxes or outright seizures of all property belonging to companies or individuals that inappropriately profitted from Bush’s war in Iraq or from Katrina.

  • The president who won a second term based on his alleged ability to address international crises has lost the confidence of most Americans on the very issue that propelled him to victory. Can Bush regain that confidence? Short of abandoning every instinct, position, and aide, it’s hard to see how.
    .
    Sure he can regain it. A couple of ads rumbling “Vote for me or Die” and the thing’s in the bag.

    Technical details:
    –20% safe: loonies who pray to icons of Shrub wearing a halo.
    –25% the votes they’re really aiming for: gun nuts, homobigots, sex-haters, and racists.
    –Too small to worry about: 0.5% “he’s such a nice man. I’d like to have him over to dinner.”
    –0.00001% his mother and Laura.
    –3% voters prevented from voting by lack of voting machines, weird polling places, and the like.
    –2% widely distributed fraud everyone will be too embarrassed to notice.
    .
    And presto! One election. As per order.

  • bogie, thanks for the link.
    The scary part is that the impeachment will be in the senate which will be least impacted during the elections at the end of the year and that the hearings would be presided over by Roberts.

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