A new NBC News\/Wall Street Journal poll was released late yesterday, showing Bush’s approval rating soaring all the way to 39%, from 38%. (An MSNBC headline, which is no longer online, described this as Bush getting “a boost” in popularity. I’d call it a “rounding error,” but I’m not a national cable network.)<\/p>\n
But even more important than just the latest job-approval numbers is the breakdown among age demographics. The WSJ’s John Harwood has an interesting take<\/a> on the poll results today, paying particular attention to the fact that elderly voters are ones Bush is loosing the fastest.<\/p>\n In a period of broad-ranging public discontent, that among senior citizens stands out as most worrisome for Republicans aiming to keep control of the House and Senate in the fall.<\/p>\n “They’re a pretty cranked up bunch and they’ve got to be handled with enormous care by incumbents,” says Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who helps conduct the Journal\/NBC survey. So far, adds his Democratic counterpart Peter Hart, “the Bush administration has done more to alienate them than to gain their support.”<\/p>\n The results can be seen in Americans’ attitudes toward Congress 11 months before Election Day 2006. By a 65%-19% margin, Americans age 65 and above disapprove of the performance of Congress; those under 65 are also negative but less lopsidedly, 58%-27%. Moreover, senior citizens say by 47%-37% that they want Democrats rather than Republicans to win control of Capitol Hill. Those under 65 prefer a Democratic victory by a narrower 45%-39% margin.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n