http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19352087/site/newsweek/
"How Low Can He Go? President Bush registers the lowest approval rating of his presidency—making him the least popular president since Nixon—in the new NEWSWEEK Poll.
WEB EXCLUSIVEBy Marcus Mabry
Newsweek
Updated: 10:49 a.m. CT June 21, 2007
June 21, 2007 - In 19 months, George W. Bush will leave the White House for the last time. The latest NEWSWEEK Poll suggests that he faces a steep climb if he hopes to coax the country back to his side before he goes. In the new poll, conducted Monday and Tuesday nights, President Bush’s approval rating has reached a record low. Only 26 percent of Americans, just over one in four, approve of the job the 43rd president is doing; while, a record 65 percent disapprove, including nearly a third of Republicans.
The new numbers—a 2 point drop from the last NEWSWEEK Poll at the beginning of May—are statistically unchanged, given the poll’s 4 point margin of error. But the 26 percent rating puts Bush lower than Jimmy Carter, who sunk to his nadir of 28 percent in a Gallup poll in June 1979. In fact, the only president in the last 35 years to score lower than Bush is Richard Nixon. Nixon’s approval rating tumbled to 23 percent in January 1974, seven months before his resignation over the botched Watergate break-in.
The war in Iraq continues to drag Bush down. A record 73 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Bush has done handling Iraq. Despite “the surge” in U.S. forces into Baghdad and Iraq’s western Anbar province, a record-low 23 percent of Americans approve of the president’s actions in Iraq, down 5 points since the end of March.
But the White House cannot pin his rating on the war alone. Bush scores record or near record lows on every major issue: from the economy (34 percent approve, 60 percent disapprove) to health care (28 percent approve, 61 percent disapprove) to immigration (23 percent approve, 63 percent disapprove). And—in the worst news, perhaps, for the crowded field of Republicans hoping to succeed Bush in 2008—50 percent of Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of terrorism and homeland security. Only 43 percent approve, on an issue that has been the GOP’s trump card in national elections since 9/11.
If there is any good news for Bush and the Republicans in the latest NEWSWEEK Poll, it’s that the Democratic-led Congress fares even worse than the president. Only 25 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing.
In the scariest news for the Democratic candidates seeking their party’s nomination in 2008, even rank-and-file Democrats are unhappy with Congress, which is narrowly controlled by their party. Only 27 percent of Democrats approve of the job Congress is doing, a statistically insignificant difference from the 25 percent of Republicans and 25 percent of independents who approve of Congress.
Overall, 63 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing, including 60 percent of Democrats, 67 percent of Republicans and 64 percent of Independents. Apparently, voters aren’t happy with anyone in Washington these days."
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My Take:
I woke up yesterday to the news that President Bush's approval rating dropped below Jimmy Carter's all time low. I cannot begin to tell you how happy this makes me. Not simply because I lean democrat; Much moreso because I am an American who hates how evil the country has acted under Bush. He has made me party to things like torture and the violation of human rights. (Although, maybe not so much as people who actually voted for him.)
When Bush was floating at a 28-29% approval rate, his legacy was that he would be looked at as a good president (he was, afterall, re-elected) who hit the doldrums during his presidency. Remember Reagan. Reagan went through a breif period of unpopularity during his two terms, but is now looked back on through love goggles as the greatest president of the last 50 years (not to say that he may not have been!). I worried that when Bush left office, Americans would, as we are want to do, forget all the bad and remember only the good and elevate him to a similar, if slightly lesser, level --- thereby opening the door for candidates of a similar lack of moral fiber.
(No one really focuses on bush Sr's all-time approval rating low point. And Bush Jr.'s I think would have also been forgotten.)
This approval rating GURANTEES his legacy is shit. It gurantees that many of his policies will be discredited long term--- like Jimmy Carter's were. Even if Bush is golden for the last few months, the news (CNN, MSNBC, Newsweek, etc. Everyone but Fox.) in future years will dig up the fact that he had a lower approval rating than a presidency that the media considers failed (Carter). Carter's approval rating had been the measuring stick of a failed presidency over the last 30 years. I would argue that is no longer the case.
Bush has dropped below the "incompetency" threshold, and is now nearing Nixon's "corrupt Presidential criminal activity" threshold (23%).
It makes me happy because at 28%, Bush HAD leveled out. The Republican Tools (a term I created for people who vote republican against their self-interests) had long since abandoned him. The 28% represented his base: the unholy trio of the religious right, rich tax evaders, and corporate theives sucking from the teats of American tax payers. These people have a deathgrip on Bush that they used to seize control of the American government. For him to drop below 28% percent, he would have to break his base.
I think he has broken it. With the discrediting of his ideas that this will bring long term, it would be extremely difficult for a Bush-like candidate to build the type of alliance Bush had.
Understand, I am not crowing over a preceived death of the Republican Party; I am celebrating the likely restoral of sense to that Party. I am celebrating the idea that much of the corruption inherent in the party might go away, or that the party might nominate a less devisive candidate, or that religion might become less of an issue with the republicans, or that if these things stay an issue --- the republicans just won't win.
I don't know what the end result of this will be, but it seems clear to me that this news will bring about positive change in one way or another. Either we will see better Republican PEOPLE who an independent like myself might vote for --- or they will lose elections --- either one works for me.
This is great news for people who hate polarized government.
I love that Bush's legacy will be of failure.
-For polarizing this country along religious lines,
-For letting Bin Ladin go --- to instead put our troops in Iraq --- thereby not getting justice for the families of 9-11 victims,
-For dumping BILLIONS of American dollars into Iraq and forcing us to BORROW THE FINANCING FOR THAT WAR FROM CHINA,
-For allowing his father's company and other big corporations to syphon that money --- tax dollars of the American public (and our children and GRANDCHILDREN -- who will have to pay china back) in essence profiteering off that conflict through the rubber stamp of the "Iraq war",
-For getting over 3000 American troops and 75,000+ innocent Iraqis killed in a war that didn't have to happen,
-For cutting backroom deals with the Mexican government and, apparently, Mexican DRUG DEALERS (for christsake!) that have two of our border agents sitting in jail for doing their jobs --- their wifes and kids having to go on without them --- and the rest of our border agents scared to enforce our borders for fear of political repraisals...
For all these reasons and more --- Bush deserves this legacy.
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