The next thing you know, he’ll bounce all the way to 30 percent

June 30, 2008

I often wonder what it must be like for the president, on a personal level, to know that he’s so deeply, historically unpopular. I know the traditional White House line is that Bush expects to be vindicated by history — we may not like him, but our grandkids will think he’s amazing — but not only is that an odd defense, it’s probably not personally fulfilling for the least popular president in modern political history.

So, how does Bush cope? Just fine, thank you. (via Satyam)

When he travels around the country, Bush feels less “antipathy” than he used to in the crowds, along the motorcade routes, and expressed by the individuals who talk to him at his events. “He feels there has been a shift in attitudes out there that’s not reflected in polling data,” the aide says.

Democrats say Bush is living in a dream world if he fails to recognize how unpopular he is and how much he is dragging down his party and GOP presidential candidate John McCain. In fact, advisers to Barack Obama say Bush is a big reason why Obama’s message of change resonates so widely and why the Democrats now lead the GOP in voter preference. “None of this is possible without George Bush,” says Cornell Belcher, Obama’s pollster.

Reinforcing his point, the latest AP-Ipsos poll, released in mid-June, found that only 29 percent of Americans approved of Bush’s job performance, one of the lowest presidential ratings ever. White House officials, by the way, say they aren’t sure such polls should be believed because the questions are biased and the population samples are flawed.

Yes, that’s it. Flawed polling. John McCain and Republican candidates don’t want to be seen with the president, but that’s probably because they’re relying on all of that “misleading data,” pulled together by so-called “polling professionals.”

And Bush is relying on motorcade routes to gauge public attitudes? What, fewer people are giving him the finger as he drives through their community, and he interprets that as a boost in popularity?

I hate to break it to the president, but there are probably fewer motorcade protest because critics have given up caring about him altogether.

That’s not a sign of less “antipathy”; it’s a sign of a boredom with a lame-duck. Bush just isn’t seen as worth the energy anymore.

When you arrange to only have friendly faces and friendly questions and friendly people anywhere near him, of course he is on top of the world.

Life in the bubble is beautiful.

Reality bites.

  • We serve our antipathy her in the Big Apple along with our antipasto
    We got plenty for Mr. BumbleBush.

  • I ain’t spending no four dollars a gallon just to flip the bird to an idiot who don’t understand the language.

  • Olbermann had great vid of Bush disembarking Marine One, I think in Georgia. And he waves to two guys in front of a building, the guys do nothing. Bush waves again, again the guys do nothing. Then Bush gives this hugely exagerated wave, so the guys will have to see him, pretty much begging for acknolwedgement. And the guys do nothing. And Bush walks out of the screen.

  • GWB a uniter not a Divider Upperer.

    Hey, its the one campaign promise he kept. He just didn’t think it would turnout this way. But he’s done it. He’s united Democrats, Independents and members of the reality based community.

    We all think he sux.

  • “Bush just isn’t seen as worth the energy anymore.”

    You’ll feel a lot differently if he bombs Iran.

    And Dee Loralei is right, that video is hilarious.

  • The really scarry part is that bombing Iran may be an important part of that projected bounce up.

  • one hates to play armchair psychologist, but it’s not hard to recognize that george bush is a classic case of a narcissistic personality, and as such, he is quite capable of living happily in a fantasy world in which he is the kind of genius that hinderaker thought he was….

  • Not long ago I considered buying one of those Bush Countdown Keychains, but I decided not to waste my money. He’ll be gone in a few months. I sent a donation to Obama instead.

  • “A shift in attitudes…not reflected in the polling data” means:

    No one can say outright they want to shoot him because the Secret Service will come after them. What a delightfully cheery disposition!

  • He goes out much as he lived in the presidency: within a bubble. I don’t really care what it’s like for him. What it is like to live in a country like the United States of America, knowing that our Congress and other institutions lack the will to defend themselves against this kind of authoritarian presidency?

    I know the answer to that question. It feels bad. Really, really bad.

  • Bush acknowledged out loud who is real constituency is. (“Some people call you the elites; I call you my base.”) And that base is considerably smaller than 30%. So my guess would be that other 70% of America simply isn’t on his radar.

  • I double Dog Dare Bush to hold just one event where people can come and hear him speak, where there’s no loyalty oath requirement, and where the Secret Service won’t strip search you if you wear an Obama sticker.

    Bush is such a pussy, he can’t even show his face in public. And all his 29%ers have gotten pretty quiet of late, they know he sucks ass but they hate the Demoncrats even more than the Worst President Ever.

  • Bugliosi explained that if he even accidentally killed a person in a car crash that he would never have an ok day again. Here is Bush, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people saying he is happy everyday and sleeps just fine. What kind of a sociopathic monster could act this way?

    Bugliosi proves intent to murder and yet here we are discussing Bush’s popularity ratings.

    “Hitler’s popularity ratings are at an all time low since D-day but conservatives say polls were influenced by the Jewish vote and therefore are deeply flawed.” Now that’s perspective.

  • White House officials, by the way, say they aren’t sure such polls should be believed because the questions are biased and the population samples are flawed.

    And pray, what would be their preferred polling methodology?

    Nothing short of a carefully-nuanced and -manipulated stylee of phrasing as could raise questions in and of themselves?

    And what would be their preferred population sample–the Park and Flush Trailer Park?

  • Remember that Boy George II isn’t just waiting for History to vindicate him. He sent his puppy Scotty McClellan home to Texas to write a book blaming Dick Cheney for fighting the Iraq War for Oil and blaming the American People for not being Noble Enough to fight it for Freedom and Democracy, thereby forcing him and all the little Bushites to lie to us and claim it was about WMD and Saddam’s (non-existent) involvement in 9/11.

  • Actually, it’s kinda funny… Dubya was over here in Germany a few weeks ago, and the only piece of news was that, literally, there was no news…

    It actually made the headlines that no protest groups showed up to protest against him, simply because all of the organized groups (at least in Germany) have basically deemed him entirely irrelevant, and are waiting on the next president (Obama would win hands down over here, btw… maybe the europeans can be given a vote?). Given that all of his previous visits have received massive turnouts of protestors (and almost more cops to keep tabs on them), it really was an oddity to see “no news” being reported as news…

  • I’ve always found it amazing that our least forward-thinking administration thinks that, at some point in the future, it will be vindicated.

  • That’s not a sign of less “antipathy”; it’s a sign of a boredom with a lame-duck. Bush just isn’t seen as worth the energy anymore. — CB

    25? 26? yrs ago, on the 4th of July, at Monticello, with hundreds of other immigrants, I was sworn-in as a citizen. So, it was a bit of delicious ironiy that, jut yesterday, I got an “invitation” from a Dem organisation to exercise my rights as the said citizen, come to Monticello on this 4th of July and participate in another crowd-of-citizens ritual: a protest demonstration against Bush, who’s supposed to come and take the oath from all those newly-minted ones (for my swearing in, it was John Warner. In those days, I respected him enormously. How times change!).

    At first, I was sorely tempted. But then I thought… A demonstration like that — especially if it ends in some sort of a scuffle with the police (almost inevitable) would, on the one hand, give a valuable lesson in US citizenship to those newbies but, on the other hand, might spoil the day for them. And… 150 miles (round trip) at $4.23 a gallon? A whole day down the tubes? For that piece of crappy, old, Still President?

    Not worth the effort; I’ll go to the neighbourhood “ice cream social” instead.

  • “How does Bush cope?” I suspect he truly doesn’t care what people think of him: like most other mentally ill, socially retarded people, Bush doesn’t have the social curiosity or the self-awareness to care about the feelings or perceptions of other people.

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