Three respected national polls — count ’em, three — show Bush’s approval rating dropping below 50% for the first time in his presidency. With that in mind, I hope we can finally put to rest this notion that Bush is a “popular” president whose second term is taken as fact.
The latest Gallup poll pegged Bush’s job approval rating at 49%, his lowest ever and an 11-point drop from just one month ago. Meanwhile, a record-high 48% said they disapprove of Bush’s performance in office.
Gallup also reported that a majority of the public now disapproves of Bush’s handing of the economy, foreign affairs, the situation in Iraq, and health care. The poll also showed the nation evenly divided — 49% to 49% — on whether it was worth going to war in Iraq, marking the first time approval of the war has dropped below 50 percent.
The same Gallup poll showed Bush losing to Kerry in a hypothetical general election match-up, 53% to 46%.
This week’s Newsweek poll was just as bad for Bush. The president’s approval rating in this poll has dipped to 49%, the lowest rating Bush has had in a Newsweek poll and a five-point drop from earlier this month. A plurality indicated they do not want to see Bush win a second term, and, in a hypothetical match-up against Kerry, Bush loses 48% to 46%.
And lastly, a Quinnipiac University Poll also shows Bush’s approval rating at 49%, the lowest of his presidency. The same poll shows Bush trailing Kerry by a fairly wide margin in a general election race, 51% to 43%. In December, Bush led Kerry by 12 points, 51% to 39%.
I guess the Democratic nomination is worth having after all.