Comments on: Newsweek Poll Shows Bush State-of-the-Union Speech “Bump” Downwards

By: kritter

kritter — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 04:32:03 +0000

I love the way conservatives always blame the polls instead of the subject of the polls. Nothing Bush says anymore is helping, because most Americans are tuning him out. They either don’t believe he’ll do what’s best for the country, or worse don’t believe he’s competent enough to get what he wants to get done done. I personally think he needs to make a break from Cheney. He’s dragging Bush’s numbers down even lower, when he goes on CNN and talks about “tremendous accomplishments” in Iraq. Its an insult to our intelligence.

By: Rudi

Rudi — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 23:53:57 +0000

Tully Joe had this post/poll a couple days ago.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Poll: Bushâ€™s State Of The Union Speech Helped Him
by Joe Gandelman
Did you question this data?

Now another poll says it didn’t help. The only pertinent data is the trend of his poll numbers. It is a negative sloped line from 911 (80%) to 30% today. It many have bottomed, but I doubt the slope will change(go positive) and W will ever see the high 40% numbers ever again. I believe both Clinton and Reagan had polling trends both positive and negative, ending on a positive swing, W is only on a downward slope. The train is running away and the brakeman cant stop the engine.

By: Kim Ritter

Kim Ritter — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 06:43:51 +0000

Even conservatives want an executive branch that is in touch with reality and competent- not isolated from Congress and the public. Also, Bush has enlarged the deficit,enlarged the bureaucracy, and taken a moderate view on illegal immigration- all positions which are abhorred by conservatives. Many do not consider him a true conservative. His SOTU speech reaching out to Democrats on global warming, health care and immigration will not further enamor him with his base. The last thing he did that they really liked was appointing Justice Alito to the Supreme Court!

By: Mike P.

Mike P. — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 05:40:19 +0000

Tully, I second DBK’s empiricism. I have seen the same thing in my more conservative friends. People who defended his actions a year ago as “better than the Democrats” today would just as soon ‘fart in his general direction.’ I’ll add that my friends are, for the most part, active duty and retired military veterans.

By: m

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 05:11:50 +0000

I love it when the conversatives can’t stand their man anymore. George W is the ultimate, ideal conservative (NOT the Goldwater conservative who was happy to leave their hands off personal issues). George W. is selfish, does only what he wants, has no concern for anyone else’s opinion, pays tribute only to those in power, acts out of greed and uses religion to mask it.

How can any ‘modern’ Republican not love the guy? Their very ideals are being put on display, product tested so to speak. Use force when you can, don’t ‘think’ too hard, thinking is for those east coast liberals, be reactionary, send kids to die for your bad call and skew the debate – when you can’t discuss just shout at the other person or call them fat and ugly (Rush does that so well). Oh yeah, and cut all Govt that has oversight, make everyting free-market/privatize/mercenary forces fighting under the USA flag (that greed thing again) and when someone disgarees with you- turn them into a subhuman so you can act in any way towards them and not feel guilt.

So how can a Republican say that Bush is not their ideal President? What do they want, some educated, adult who can call on real life experience to make decisions? A person who didn’t have a dad to give them every advantage and keep him sober and make sure his sone never saw the shore of Vietnam? isn’t that the Republican advantage? Wealth, ease of life, Govt. pension?

By: DBK

DBK — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 04:42:42 +0000

CBS had Bush at 28%. Maybe a poll that is consistent doesn’t reflect things accurately. This is purely anecdotal, but some of my friends are very conservative, Fox News-only people. THEY can’t stand Bush anymore. Regardless of the precise numbers in this poll or that, Bush’s unpopularity cannot be denied.

By: Tully

Tully — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 02:37:49 +0000

Without the base sample data a one-shot poll is pretty damn worthless. Newsweek notably does not reveal their base sample data or methodology. Rasmussen's ongoing rolling three-day average sampling poll can be relied on for consistency and proper methodology. It's been done in the same fashion with the same methodology for the last five years. It differs.

By: Pug

Pug — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 02:32:44 +0000

Thomas Friedman wrote in his column Friday that the American people effectively fired George W. Bush in the last election. Now we have to watch him clean out his desk for the next two years.

When you fire an employee, objective number one is to get them out the door. Can’t do that in this case.

By: Davebo

Davebo — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 00:35:20 +0000

But the polling results on the war, the Bush administration and attitudes towards Congress should be seen as part of the structuralâ€? part of the American polity. And itâ€™s dotted with red warning flags for President Bush, his adminsitration, the Republicans and the Democrats. Many Americans clearly want an assertive Congress to assume the role of â€œthe decision makerâ€? as well.

Well I’d certainly love to see that. But unfortunately our government isn’t setup that way. Until we see a poll showing a majority of Americans wanting Congress to defund the war in order to force the President to bring the troops home Bush is definately “the decision maker”.