This time, it’s personal

March 1, 2006

Chris Matthews was on the Today show this morning and, citing the recent CBS poll, made an interesting — and for Matthews, surprisingly astute — observation about the national mood. (via Kleiman)

“The people don’t like the President even more than they don’t like his policies.”

That’s true. Looking at the most recent numbers, the electorate has no use for the president’s agenda of handling of today’s major issues. His approval rating is 34%; just 30% approve of how Bush is handling the war in Iraq; half of Americans say they disapprove of how Bush is handling the war on terror; 32% approve of the way Bush is responding to Katrina, and the same percentage said they approve of Bush’s handling of the economy.

Embarrassingly poor support, to be sure. But the number Matthews cited may be the most important of all: Only 29% of Americans say they have a positive view of Bush, the worst of his presidency.

In both of his presidential campaigns, Bush would subtly remind audiences that, no matter the issue, he was the guy they liked. The one they wanted to have a (non-alcoholic) beer with. They one they’d invite to their barbecue instead of those experienced, capable, and qualified eggheads Al Gore and John Kerry.

But those barbecue invitations just got pulled. For the first time since Bush took office, slightly more people approve of his job performance than like him personally.

Matthews added that this “is a staggering blow because we all know that he’s had two things going for him since he’s been president: the war on terror, where’s he gotten good numbers, and now they’re negative, and likability — they’re both gone now.”

Yes, they are. And if “Bush fatigue” has set in, and the public just doesn’t like the guy anymore, the White House may find it almost impossible to turn things around.

About goddamn time. I always thought it was a myth that anyone preferred or even wanted to share a beer or a barbeque with Bush.

  • I couldn’t care less about whether I like a President or not, as I’ll never sup at his table anyway. What I do care about is how well he governs and what effect his decisions have on our country. If that makes me an old-fashioned citizen instead of a consumer of political celebrity, I’m proud to be one.

  • Amazing, really, that it’s taken THIS long for people to catch on to the dimwitted one. He and his administration have proven on so many fronts just how incapable they are of doing just about anything correctly. And that’s above and beyond the chicanery and secrecy that seems pervasive in everything they do. The scariest part is what we DON’T know yet. How many more DP World and unwarranted surveillance-like activities are going on in the shadows, as we speak? I shudder to think.

    Hmmm. The Prez’s approval rating is in the shitter. Must be about time for another terrorist attack. Gotta get them numbers back up…heh, heh, heh.

  • Just two short thoughts:

    1. Agree with Drew–maybe OBL will be “caught” just in time for the November elections.

    2. The problem with this is, I fear, that Bush’s poor performance, regardless if it continues through the next 3 years–and it likely will, will somehow not rub off on the GOP presidential candidates in 2008 (or, more likely, if it does rub off on them it will be forgotten by then and/or the dumbasses who vote in such things will once again select the Repub. candidate over the Dem candidate for no real or substantive reasons–other than the wealthy who want more and more tax cuts, of course).

  • Did anybody check to make sure that was really Chris Matthews or an autamatron?? Or possibly a doppelganger? Did it have a pulse?

  • Jeremy! You’re assuming the ‘regular’ Chris Matthews has a pulse to begin with!

    🙂

  • The 29% that still have a positive view of Bush must have long term brain damage from quite a few beers.

    The remaining supporters must be industrial strength hard core loyalists who would not only drink a beer with Bush but would also drink Jonestown koolaide.

  • Bush did see fit to mention OBL in Afghanistan during his impromtu visit there earlier today. Obviously, the poll numbers are affecting him, so he’s pulling out the old ‘go to’ topics, but after the exposure DWP got, will even his staunchest of supportest believe his tough talk?

  • Someone refress my memory, did Bill Clinton, supposedly our worst president, ever have a 34% approval rating in his second term?

  • Popular or not, Bush still has nearly three years left to cut a lot of deals for friends and family.

  • What if OBL is found, but he’s been hidden with help from the UAE government? Just a thought.

  • Steve,
    Tweety stole the idea of Bush’s “likabilty being less than his policies” from a Newsweek reporter that he interviewed on his show last night…..not that Tweety doesn’t have anything original or astute to say!!!

  • Ed,
    and I believe he left office with the highest approval rating of any peacetime president, including St. Ronald of Santa Barbara. But he was our worst president, you know.

  • Take away 9/11 (and don’t we wish we could), and The Chimp would have been a one-term president. Instead, Rove was able to use fear brilliantly to keep his clueless charge in office. Sad. No, tragic, given the consequences.

  • Huh. I was wondering how bad the poll numbers would have to get before Tweety realized we’re not all buying into this “sunny nobility” bullshit he’s been selling.

    How are ya gonna spin THIS one, Tweety?

    Oh. Let me guess. “It takes a strong and resolute man to do the right thing in the face of criticism.”

  • Chris Matthews doesn’t personally recognize such polls or take them to heart. The day before, he compared Bush to Atticus Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird for his masterful, restrained handling of the Port deal. It really is a waste of anyone’s time to pay attention to Matthews.

  • I happened to catch Margaret Carlson on yesterday’s Hardball. Matthews brought up the poll before the 2004 election that said that most people thought Dubya would be more likely to stop and help you if you were on the side of the road with a flat tire. Carlson had a great line: “Yes, but Kerry might actually know how to fix the tire.”

  • Dubya would be more likely to stop and help you if you were on the side of the road with a flat tire….

    By first calling in a military strike on your car to clear out any possible terrorists and then calling in Halliburton Towing Inc to haul it away.

  • 1. Stop paying attention to Tweety, if his ratings tank enough, maybe MSNBC will replace him with Phil Donahue.

    2. It’s worth repeating over and over and over – Bush was the BIG beneficiary of 9/11. That one terrorist attack guaranteed a second term. If not for that The Crony-in-Chief’s numbers would have been in the 30s by 2002. Iraq might have been impossible, and the hundreds of billions spent in the WOT … well that dough would have been handed over to the Cronies no matter what.

    3. It’s not too soon to connect McCain to Bush every day in every way.

  • I still don’t understand why the dumb, damned, doomed Democrats didn’t plaster the TV with dopey George reading “My Pet Goat” for seven minutes while the WTC was being taken down, then hip-hopping from one hideout to another till the bin Ladens had all been flown out of the country.

    Democrats may not be able to control events (like 9/11), but they certainly can control their own expressed reaction to events. They still haven’t learned what it means to be an OPPOSITION party.

  • As I think I commented on another blog on this same topic, none of this really matters. Bush doesn’t have to worry about being re-elected. None of his policies or behavior have changed as a result of these numbers. Iraq, Katrina, the Medicare drug bill–nothing has changed, and nothing will.

  • Matthews is not just the fakest man alive but disinformer of the year at Media Matters. As for the polls,it’s about a year and a quarter too late.
    Will Congress,which wants to get reelected actually take these polls to heart? And what possible difference will it make?

  • Didn’t Tweety say not long ago that everybody liked the coward except for the whackjobs?

  • Now Mr. Sekzer, a New York cop who lost his son on Sept. 11, describes his reaction to President Bush’s belated acknowledgment that “we’ve had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved” in the Sept. 11 attacks. “What the hell did we go in there for?” Mr. Sekzer asks. Unable to hide his bitterness, he says: “The government exploited my feelings of patriotism, of a deep desire for revenge for what happened to my son. But I was so insane with wanting to get even, I was willing to believe anything.”
    Finally, Bushit said “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” This may be the only time Bushit told the truth to the American people.

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