It probably doesn’t matter to Mr. Bush, since he’s not running for anything in the future, but according to the most recent ARG poll, his approval rating has returned to a low of 36% compared to a disapproval of 58%. His approval rating probably has more to do with the 2006 and 2008 elections where, if his numbers are bad enough, he’ll be actively bad for Republicans seeking office instead of being merely a non-factor for them.
Democrats and Republicans are fairly predictable in their responses, the more significant group are the Independents, figured as 30% of the responders. 71% of them disapprove compared to 24% approval.
Do think there is any way this would improve? Something as simple as “Stop spying on Americans” would only stop the decline, not regain ground.
Full pullout in Iraq?
Fully funtional border security?
And no, “Quit being evil/stupid/a jerk” does not count!
He’d probably get a big boost from another attack on the U.S. or something. We may not like Bush, but most of us Americans are pretty patriotic and tend to rally around The President in spite of ourselves and in spite of his merits.
What surprises me about this 36% is that I don’t know what caused it. For awhile now, Democrats and Independents had a pretty dim view of him, but Republican support was just short of fanatical. The last time it hit 36% was in the wake of the Harriet Miers nomination for which conservatives were fairly mad at Bush. Some of that anger was reflected, I think, in the form of a dip in support. Right now, there is nothing like the Miers nomination I can point to that has Republican support “down” in the 70s. (Unless maybe it’s the libertarian-Republicans who don’t like the idea of Bush spying on American citizens, etc.)
I think some of the “true conservatives” who made his approval dip over Miers are also making it dip because they don’t believe in widescale warrantless domestic spying. After watching all those “U.N. New World Order Black Helicopter Operations” videos during the Clinton years, they are hearing some things now that actually sound like real attempts to establish a police state. Or maybe they’re upset about the budget. I don’t know. I know the Democrats’ meters have been maxed out at “maximum hatred” and the independents changed their minds about Bush conveniently a month or two after the election, so any movement is most likely among conservatives.
Still not sure why another attack would help Bush. I think it might in the short term, provided he doesn’t read a book or something. But at some point I think people would say “Hey, we just got hit AGAIN. The only reason I liked the guy is he was going to keep my safe.”