Given his comments yesterday on the [tag]president[/tag]’s national support, I think [tag]Karl Rove[/tag] has climbed into [tag]Bush[/tag]’s bubble.
Despite low approval ratings, “I’m sanguine,” [tag]Rove[/tag] said. “I know our own polls.”
He said that Bush’s likeability, his [tag]personal[/tag] [tag]approval ratings[/tag], were in the 60s in some polls. “Job approval is lower. And what that says to me is that people like him, they respect him, he’s somebody they feel a connection with, but they’re just sour right now on the war. And that’s the way it’s going to be.”
This is utter nonsense. Rove can’t point to a single report anywhere that supports any of these conclusions. In fact, all available evidence suggests the polar opposite.
The most recent polls show the president’s personal approval ratings slipping below 30%, less than half of where Rove claims they are. Indeed, most recent data shows that Americans don’t like Bush at all — his job-performance ratings are actually higher than his personal ratings.
As MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, of all people, said in March, “The people don’t like the President even more than they don’t like his policies.”
People “like him”? They “feel a connection with” him? I don’t think so.