Oh the indignity. The [tag]Bush[/tag] gang not only has to endure a new [tag]poll[/tag] pegging the president’s approval ratings at a stunning 33%, but they’re also in a position in which they can’t bash the news outlet that produced the poll — [tag]Fox News[/tag].
President Bush’s job [tag]approval rating[/tag] slipped this week and stands at a new low of 33 percent approve, down from 36 percent two weeks ago and 39 percent in mid-March. A year ago this time, 47 percent approved and two years ago 50 percent approved (April 2004).
Approval among [tag]Republicans[/tag] is below 70 percent for the first time of Bush’s presidency. Two-thirds (66 percent) approve of Bush’s job performance today, down almost 20 percentage points from this time last year when 84 percent of Republicans approved. Among Democrats, 11 percent approve today, while 14 percent approved last April.
“It seems clear that many Republicans, while they may still like and support [tag]George Bush[/tag], are growing uneasy with what may happen to their candidates — and the policies they support — in the November elections,” comments Opinion Dynamics Chairman John Gorman.
“This unease about the direction of the party is now showing up as an erosion of the near unanimous support Bush has enjoyed among the Republican rank-and-file for the last six years.”
Asked specifically why they disapprove of the president, 48% noted the war in Iraq as the top reason, 24% said Bush is doing a bad job in general, 22% disagree with him on the issues, 17% noted the economy, and 11% said they just don’t like him personally.
Following up on the Fox News poll, [tag]Paul Krugman[/tag] said today that there’s “a great revulsion” among the electorate — and it’s overdue.
“I have a vision — maybe just a hope — of a [tag]great revulsion[/tag]: a moment in which the American people look at what is happening, realize how their good will and patriotism have been abused, and put a stop to this drive to destroy much of what is best in our country.”
I wrote those words three years ago in the introduction to my column collection, “The Great Unraveling.” It seemed a remote prospect at the time: Baghdad had just fallen to U.S. troops, and President Bush had a 70 percent approval rating.
Now the great revulsion has arrived. The latest Fox News poll puts Mr. Bush’s approval at only 33 percent. According to the polling firm Survey USA, there are only four states in which significantly more people approve of Mr. Bush’s performance than disapprove: Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Nebraska. If we define red states as states where the public supports Mr. Bush, Red America now has a smaller population than New York City.
The proximate causes of Mr. Bush’s plunge in the polls are familiar: the heck of a job he did responding to Katrina, the prescription drug debacle and, above all, the quagmire in Iraq.
But focusing too much on these proximate causes makes Mr. Bush’s political fall from grace seem like an accident, or the result of specific missteps. That gets things backward. In fact, Mr. Bush’s temporarily sky-high approval ratings were the aberration; the public never supported his real policy agenda.
That’s true, and it also points to the inherent difficulties of a “comeback.” At 33%, Bush can’t bolster his public support by touting policy prescriptions that he believes in (Social Security privatization anyone?). He’s simply stuck — low support, unpopular agenda, disastrous war.
Maybe Bush and his allies can “fear and smear” their way through one more election cycle, maybe not. But it’s hard to see how the president personally recovers without a drastic change of direction and priorities.