This week in polls

March 3, 2006

Last week, none of the major polling outfits produced national data. Since Tuesday, we’ve had five. Here’s a recap of what we’ve learned about public opinion this week, with the most recent polls first.

* Gallup — Bush’s job-approval rating is 38%, the second lowest of his presidency in a Gallup poll. The proportion who strongly approve of him has fallen to 20%, the lowest ever. The proportion that strongly disapproves has risen to 44%, the highest ever. The president’s approval rating on terrorism is 47%, down 7 points in a month and a record low. Three of four Americans surveyed say they are following the Dubai Ports World story closely. Overall, they oppose the deal by a nearly 4-to-1 ratio, 66%-17%. Four in 10 call the proposed sale “a major threat” to U.S. security.

* Fox News — Bush’s job-approval rating is 39%, the second lowest of his presidency in a Fox News poll. Opposition to the UAE ports deal stands at 69%. By a 14-point margin, voters think it would be better for the country if Democrats win control of Congress in this year’s election, up from an 8-point edge in early February and 11 points in January.

* LA Times/Bloomberg — Bush’s approval rating fell to 38%, the lowest level recorded for him in an LAT poll. The president also confronts an intensity gap: The percentage of Americans who said they strongly disapproved of his performance on a wide range of issues greatly exceeded the share who strongly approved. By a greater than 3-1 margin, Americans oppose the Dubai Ports World deal.

* Quinnipiac — Only 36% of voters approve of the job Bush is doing, the lowest of his presidency in a Quinnipiac poll. By a 10-point margin, 52% to 42%, Americans disapprove of the way Bush is handling terrorism. A 55% majority believe the president should get a court order before conducting wiretaps, which is at odds with the administration’s policy.

* CBS News — Bush’s approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 34%. Only 29% of Americans say they have a positive view of Bush, the worst of his presidency. Bush has also fallen to all-time lows in handling of Iraq, the response to Katrina, and the war on terrorism.

And just to help make congressional Republicans extra confused, a top GOP pollster is encouraging them not to run away from Bush this year, despite his plummeting popularity.

Republicans who run away from President Bush will only help Democrats win control of Congress in November, top Republican pollster and strategist Ed Goeas said yesterday.

Republicans would be making the same mistake as Democrats in 1994, when they ran from President Clinton, worsening the anti-incumbent atmosphere and resulting in Democrats losing both the House and the Senate.

Mr. Goeas based his conclusions on results of the bipartisan George Washington University Battleground 2006 Poll released at the National Press Club.

It’s something of a dilemma for congressional Republicans: Run with an unpopular president and put your political standing in jeopardy, or run away from an unpopular president and fuel the anti-GOP sentiment that could put your political standing in jeopardy.

Decisions, decisions.

It’s something of a dilemma for congressional Republicans: Run with an unpopular president and put your political standing in jeopardy, or run away from an unpopular president and fuel the anti-GOP sentiment that could put your political standing in jeopardy.

It couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of people.

  • this situation reminds me of the mad magazine parody of “the poseidon adventure.”

    the movie featured a stand-off early on between two priests, one who wanted people to stay in the ballroom and pray for help, the other (gene hackman) who wanted to help people help themselves by leading a small party up to the where the propeller entered the hull and where they would have a chance of escaping the upside-down ship.

    in the movie hackman is right and his followers are saved.

    in mad magazine, though, when hackman’s party reaches the propeller, the kid who suggested the plan in the first place after hearing about the possible egress during a tour of the ship, remembers what he also heard on the tour: that if the ship was ever tipped upside-down, it would in time right itself. which is what happens right then, causing everyone in hackman’s party, like those who stayed in the ballroom to drown.

    in the mad magazine america that bush has created, we can only hope that america rights itself and that he and his party suffer the same fate.

  • It’s interesting to watch the usual media suspects spinning these poll results. Mediamatters.org, in its March 1 article “Media reach to minimize Bush’s poor poll results,” notes that the Roger Ailes-inspired meme is that all the polls were conducted with a disproportionate number of Democrats. Rush Limbaugh took this concept even further by simply refusing to believe the results: “This is not represerntative of the — of the population of the country in any way, shape, manner or form. Nor is the fact that Bush has 34 percent. Nor is the fact that Cheney has 18. You just know that’s not possible. It simply isn’t possible.”

    I’d like to see a poll asking people what they think of Rush Limbaugh these days.

  • Run with an unpopular president and put your political standing in jeopardy, or run away from an unpopular president…….

    Neither choice will help them (or us) with business as usual in congress.

    It feels like we are all passengers on a vast “unsinkable” ocean liner which is suddenly floundering in the high seas. Polls taken on the Titanic just after it hit the iceburg would have more than 80% strongly confident the Steamship policies, but as the deck started to tilt the percentage would drop swiftly to 0% when horror of the shortage of lifeboats was evident. The difference for our country is that republicans can still break with their mad captain and change course to lessen the disasterous impact of his policies.

    Partisanship, delusion, arrogance and greed are the real threats to our security in allowing our nation to be hijacked by private interests run into iceburgs. We are dismantling our traditions of constitutional government. Our elected leaders no longer understand their task of responsible governance independent of personal gain.

    Repubs and Dems both need to wake up attend to the real needs of the country or we’ll all be bobbing in the sea. The rich will have lifeboats, but will share in a 0% support poll for the captain.

  • Yeah, because we all know how likely it is that the Faux News pollsters intentionally over-sampled Dems and BushBashers. Based on his tenuous view of reality, one can only wonder if Rush has had a relapse.

  • Is it possible for Bush’s ratings to fall so low that the Republicans will call for his impeachment simply to save their own skins? I’m sure the answer is, regrettably, ‘no’ but it feels so good to fantasize about it.

  • The real issue that concerns me is that those who are disaffected with the current administration are not likely to suddenly become Democrats. We may be drifting toward a time when the country becomes ungovernable because of a rigid, anti-democratic and bitter minority. Just because deficit hawks and abortion foes and authoritarians no longer like Bush doesn’t mean that they become liberals–they’re likely if anything to become even more extreme. Hard times are coming.

  • Larry,

    You’re probably right. Unless the Dems push the port (and other) security issues, and maybe job outsourcing, they’re not going to pick up disgruntled Republicans who hate gays and abortion.

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