At what point do Republicans start running in the opposite direction?

September 9, 2005

During their fifth years in the White House, Nixon was caught up in Watergate and LBJ was suffering politically due to Vietnam. And yet, neither saw their approval ratings drop below 42% by the summer of their fifth year in office.

Something to consider while reviewing the latest numbers from polls released over the last week:

* Associated Press/Ipsos has Bush’s approval rating at 39%, the lowest of Bush’s presidency.

* Zogby has Bush’s approval rating at 41%, the lowest of Bush’s presidency.

* CBS has Bush’s approval rating at 42%, the second lowest of Bush’s presidency.

* Pew Research Center has Bush’s approval rating at 40%, the lowest of Bush’s presidency.

Has Bush just about reached the floor, or could his support still drop?

When they start pulling out bodies of people that starved to death, died of dehydration or had no access to medication, the numbers could go down even more (although I pray that does not happen..the victims, not the numbers).

  • Remember a while back when I said 37%’s the uttermost floor. I still stand by that comment, especially after the miniscule movement downward after Katrina.

  • Impeachment will only come when Gallup and Fox polling hits 30 percent–even–for an approval rating. And not a moment before.

  • You people are forgetting the impact of persistently high gas prices and the very real possibility of recession. That’s the only thing Americans really care about, and if we have 9-12 months of that, his rating will drop even further.

  • Hey GreyGuy,

    BushCo is already trying to suppress photos of dead bodies and the count of the dead. You can get a more current count of our dead soldiers in Iraq than the current number of dead in Louisanna, Mississippi, and Alabama.

  • A 41% approval is only a 10% drop ffrom the percentage that voted for him less than a year ago. That means 90% of the people who voted for GWB think he’s “doin a heck of a job”. There are more dips to come. Once the popular Republican Senators start distancing themselves I feel GBW might be alone in the wilderness.

    Pass the popcorn!

  • I just read that Bush is not taking a hit
    in the polls from Katrina. Less than half
    are blaming him. Drudge was crowing
    about it. Apparently, in one poll, only 13%
    laid the blame at Bush’s feet. And only
    an additional 18% blamed the federal
    government (why do the people think
    that the branch of the federal government
    that Bush presides over is somehow
    distinct and unrelated to him?)

    This is just mind boggling. I think he’s
    as low as he can go in the polls. Maybe
    a point or two more, but I don’t think the
    composite will drop below 40%.
    Astonishing and tragic. These guys
    are here to stay. We can’t beat them.
    You’ve got to have an independent MSM
    to defeat them.

    I think if we confined our news sources to
    what 90% of the American people see,
    we’d understand. They get their news from
    the rot served up by the networks and
    cable news outlets, and they don’t watch
    a hell of a lot of it, either.

    We all ought to do that. Swear off real
    news for 30 days, watch the nightly
    news, maybe a piece here and there
    on cable, then ask ourselves what
    impressions we have about what’s
    going on in this country. Bet it would
    a real eye-closer.

  • Make no mistake, they are watching this unfold on the edge of their seats, deciding which way to jump. Between the Iraq war, the high gas prices, the President’s failure to provide leadership during and after Katrina, the GOP is nervous. The question is, will Americans hold them accountable in 2006?

    Americans are fickle and have short attention spans. I thought between the fact that bush lied about the pre-war justifications, Plame/Rove-Gate and the mission-unacomplished in Iraq, people would have turned against them long ago, but apparently they have a high tolerance for incompetence and lies, so long as its not about consensual sex with an intern (and then lying about it).

  • Bush’s popularity could drop down into the 20’s, and that’s by no means impossible, but it still won’t mean a thing as long as the Republican party keeps control of both Houses of Congress. The key will be the mid-term elections in 2006. If his personal slide translates into major power shifts in Congress then the possibility of impeachment becomes a real option. If not, he’s laughing all the way to retirement, and he knows it.

  • I don’t know that the polls will go much lower. They are pretty cose to those that supported Bush no matter what. Any loss in the polls since the election are likely those that voted for Bush because they didn’t like Kerry enough.

    I doubt that 10,000 (God I hope that number is less) is not likely to change peoples minds – sad to say – especially since there is enough blame to around that will allow them to blame Nagin and Blanco.

  • How low he can go depends on who he names as the next SCOTUS Assoc. Judge – if he does nominate Al Gon – we could see some of the fundy’s walk.

  • i think he’s pretty much at the bottom of his range – even Nixon didn’t go much lower until very late in Watergate, when there was finally no question to even the most obstinate nixon-supporter that he was guilty.

    as for bush not taking a hit on katrina, i’m not sure what polls drudge has, but here in the real world, the polls show the federal government – george bush’s federal government – as tanking badly (and the rolling polling don’t look so good for bush either)….

  • The sheeple will never abandon their shepherd. Even if he’s deaf, dumb and blind and leading them off a cliff to be fed to wolves.

    They’re sheeple. The less they have to think the better they feel.

    Why don’t you godless liberals who hate America understand that????

  • From: Gridlock
    “Why don’t you godless liberals who hate America understand that????”
    =============================================================
    I understand it perfectly thank you very much.

    What amazes me is how many Americans lack the ability to use critical thinking skills to separate myth from reality. The further right this country goes the more I wonder if this country will continue to exist….

  • I think the numbers can drop more. Some stuff is still waiting to hit: the Fitzgerald indictments and resulting prosecutions (with rumors already that Judy Miller is going to talk), the heating prices this winter with the shortages of natural gas, the gasoline shortages (especially since Bush is doing ANYTHING other than ask Americans to conserve), and certainly the war in Iraq is unlikely to improve and could coneivably get much worse as our troops there become more strained. That’s just what I can think of off the top of my head. Those numbers are going lower.

  • There are many who are too stubborn to admit they made a mistake in supporting the preznit. They can be counted on to “be true to themselves” and support bush.

  • When my daughter read the comments Scottie made last week about not making this a partisan issue, her immediate response was, “yeah, you’d think everyone would hate you by now”.

    I think there is a very stubborn core of rotten folks that never will change. Just like this admininstration, they are just made that way I guess. If this is as low as it gets, it’s good enough because it’s more that 50% and then some, and that just gives me a little hope.

  • I say 35% is the floor. So he’s got a bit more to go. These people believe Bush is Jesus or something. Pictures of him with a goat could surface, etc.

    I do think Congress is going to go into rats/sinking ship mode though.

  • I posted about this a couple of weeks ago: I said at that point it was probably about 33%, but now, I think it could sink below 30% if the outrage over Katrina continues and they sneak Social Security privatization in the back door. Or the winter oil shock or a housing bubble pop. Or the popularization of the theme that Bush invaded Iraq to establish an Islamic Republic allied with Iran.

    As the numbers approach that level, there’ll be a piling on and prominent defectors that convince rank and file republicans to come out against Bush.

  • With Bush’s DISapproval rating well-over 50% and climbing, can we now refer to it as his ANTImandate?

  • The poll numbers we are seeing now are not the lowest Bush will go.
    The situation can be likened to the scene in Force 10 From Navarrone
    when the explosives used to destroy the dam in Yugoslavia didn’t seem to
    do any harm to the structure. It was only after a few moments that the
    shock waves started to cause the dam to shudder and ultimately collapse.
    Bush is at the start of his freefall. Slowly the collective mistakes and
    lies combined with higher consumer prices will start to make the
    administration’s popularity crash. Smart Republicans will see this coming and jump ship if they want to save themselves from utter catastrophe.
    By protecting Bush they are putting heavy chains on themselves that
    will guarantee that they will be pulled under the raging waters when the
    USS Bush cascades to the bottom. Bon voyage, GOP.

  • With one million new unemployed by Katrina, interest rates poised ready to spiral upwards, the Chinese poised ready to pull the plug, already hyperbolic deficits, spiraling energy costs with winter on the way and heating oil/natural gas ready to double or triple in cost from last winter, Peak Oil just around the corner threatening to turn this fall into “The Good Old Days”, (blue state) urban population centers teetering on the edge of a bursting real estate bubble when any (or all) of the previous problems escalate, and now San Francisco is qeued up to complete FEMA’s ultimate disaster triple-play…

    You ask has Bush reached the floor?

    Heh, heh, heh…

    wait for it.

  • You know how hard it is to convince proselytizing zealots that their religion is bunk? Well, I’d put that number of ChristoBush cultists at at least 30%. I’ve got some in my own family. They just can’t admit that they’ve been wrong because Jeebus told them so many times that Dubya is their savior. How can they argue with Jeebus? So they’ll go right on in rank denial as the economy and everything else comes crashing down around their heads, and then they’ll blame anybody but Shrub. I’m tellin’ ya, it’s a mass delusion. It’s religion, baby. Get used to it.
    If—and it’s a big if—2006 shifts the power in Congress to the Dems, then at least we can hope for impeachment (and incarceration? One would hope!). But do the Rethugs have enough control over the voting machines to avoid that scenario? They might well have. They’ve had plenty of time to work on it.

  • No Impeachment. Never gedt a conviction and the GOP ruined it as a tool for the foreseeable future. But a Dem controlled Congress, even one branch, will be able to investigate and with subpoena power. The corruption, so endemic in this administration, will make the GOP toxic for a generation and silence the Right Wing Noise Machine far longer.

  • If gas prices go over $3, a lot of Boy George’s core will melt like ice cream in the sun. A lot of his base votes purely on self-interest — that’s why they’re his base.

    • Comments are closed.