Katrina-related polls

September 8, 2005

As time goes on, and the public learns more, the reaction to the government’s handling of the Katrina crisis worsens.

There’s a new CBS News poll out, for example, with bad news all around for public officials.

President George W. Bush’s overall response to Katrina meets with disapproval today – a dramatic change from the public’s reaction just after the storm hit on August 29th. Last week, in the two days immediately after Katrina made landfall, a majority of Americans said they approved of Bush’s response, although more than a third were not sure. Now, only 38% approve. A majority (58%) disapproves.

For some reason, there’s a disconnect in the CBS poll between the public’s disapproval of Bush and its disapproval of “the federal government.” Apparently, people perceive the two as entirely different.

There’s also a new Zogby poll showing Bush’s support dropping to unseen lows.

President Bush’s job approval rating took a hit in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, dropping to a historic low of 41%, a new Zogby America poll reveals. […]

The public rates the performance of all levels of government in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina negatively, with 36% giving the President passing marks on his handling of the crisis.

And, finally, SurveyUSA has new poll results out, showing that a majority of Americans (52%) believe the government was “surprisingly disorganized” in response to Katrina, while 55% disapprove of Bush’s handling of the crisis. What’s more, the numbers are trending in the wrong direction for the White House.

The number of Americans who 1) disapprove of President Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina, 2) say the Federal Government is not doing enough to help the victims, and 3) say the government’s response has been “surprisingly disorganized,” all went up in the past 24 hours

I guess the administration will need some new talking points; these aren’t working.

BubbleBoy won’t see the polls anyway, and wouldn’t care if he did. It’s not like he has to run for reelection or anything, and barring a takeover of Congress by the Dems in 2006 (hardly likely with the voting machine companies still in the hot little hands of GOP stalwarts), he needn’t be concerned about his well-deserved impeachment.

Don’t bother the poor guy with polls. He’s gotta get on with his life.

  • Trouble is, there is often a huge disconnect between peoples’ attitudes and their deeds. And even if people act, it might well work to the advantage of the GOP.

    The GOP will only pay attention if the public is mad enough to actually DO something that might get them run out of office. If that’s going to happen, the Democrats are going to have to offer something better. It’s not enough that the GOP is doing poorly if the Dems are riding their coattails down.

    The fact that even getting a city blown all to hell isn’t enough to knock the President down more than a point or two? I fucking give up.

  • But the Gallup polls were surprisingly forgiving toward Bush. Is this related to the pro-GOP bias we saw in 2004? What’s going on?

  • He’s down to the bare minimum base, now, though. He can look around and those standing closest to him are the people who, like him, don’t care about the poor or middle class, and are just as likely to spit on them as help them.

    Then there are the bigots. They may be middle class or poor, but they’ll be damned if they vote for a Democrat. They can be identified by the Confederate flag sticker on their truck next to Calvin pissing on something.

    Further out are the people who got him confused with Jesus. Maybe their conscience is starting to bother them a little, but not much. As longs a gays can’t get married, they are Bush people.

    Every dispicable, evil leader that has ever existed had supporters.

    Beyond that, there’s nobody left in Bush country.

    But I’m sure gerrymandering, voting machines, and just plain fraud will ensure a win in ’06 and ’08 for the Republicans and the Democrats will just kick the dirt as they walk off the field.

  • Hmm, it looks like we are a metastable point. A small push my send the system in either of the directions : slide to the ground for Bush or back to 50%+1 equilibrium. The Democrats probably need to come out now to shout back the Swift-Boaters before Bush can regain his balance.

  • The results are still completely partisan: Democrats see the President as a buffoon; Republicans approve of everything he does, even the NO fiasco. It is just the largely uninformed middle, which swings back and forth. The fact that it takes the uninformed middle a full week to figure out that Bush screwed up is nearly as discouraging to me, as the non-news that self-identified Republicans are gargling the kool-aid.

    The politically active and aware can and will connect the dots, because they remember the dots from moment to moment. The uninformed middle appears to mearly form impressions, based more on the tone of news reports than their content, and the uninformed middle, who barely register any event the first time around, can scarcely remember any of the dots long enough to connect the current dot with any previous ones. So, the politically active and aware may connect the incompetence, callousness, cronyism, poor judgement and lack of vision, etc. on display in New Orleans with the incompetence, callousness, cronyism, etc. on display in Iraq. Or, in the case of many Republicans, they may just continue to chug the kool-aid, ignoring the daily assaults on the country’s defense capability and fiscal integrity, while loyally toeing the partisan line.

    The balance of power, however, continues to rest with the politically uninformed, uninvolved middle. The revelation that Bush is an incompetent moron has a very short-life with these people.

  • I agree with “doubtful” (above). Bush has bottomed out, pollwise, save maybe one percentage point. That’s because of what I call the “Lower Forty” — the 40% of Americans who will believe, follow, excuse and support Bush no matter what. These are the folks to whom a damned strong misinformed opinion trumps a fact.

  • Interesting note from the Zogby poll: Zogby puts No. 43 up against every president since Carter (asking people who’d they rather have as president, I believe) and they all beat him. HOWEVER, when put up against John Kerry, Kerry still lost. When will the Democrats get their act together?

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