Bush Approval Rating Hits All Time Low In Wall Street Journal Poll
It now appears as if President George Bush’s southward-heading approval rating is still on-the move, according to the latest Wall Street Journal poll — but the poll doesn’t contain happy news for some of his opponents, either:
President Bush’s approval rating slipped to new lows in the most recent Harris Interactive survey, but he’s not alone: For the first time since the series began, all of the political figures and institutions included in the survey have negative performance ratings.
Of the 1,001 American adults polled online April 20-23, only 28% had a positive view of Mr. Bush’s job performance, down from 32% in February and from a high of 88% in the aftermath of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The current rating is his weakest showing since his inauguration.
Not good news for Bush. But the poll shows that some others are facing slippage as well:
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice garnered the approval of 45% of those surveyed, down from 46% in February, and approval of Defense Secretary Robert Gates slid to 29% in the latest poll, from 32% in February.
Among other individuals included in the poll, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) saw her approval rating fall to 30% in April from 38% in February, shortly after her swearing-in as the first female House speaker. Approval for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) slipped to 22%, from 23% in February but up from 19% a year ago.
This will likely be a key point from Bush’s supporters on radio and cable talk shows. But a President is generally expected to have more than 28 percent approval rating since he needs clout to enact programs and aggregate interest to build support for policies. Generally. But GWB seems to be marching to a far different political drummer, where coalitions and support beyond his own party’s political base are not on the front burner.
Congress should not jump for joy, either:
Those polled gave Congress an approval rating of 27%, with the Democrats as a group pulling in 35% approval, compared with 22% for Republicans.
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