President George Bush’s poll numbers have gone down in yet another poll — perhaps an indication of his further loss of part of his party’s base:
President Bush’s job approval ratings have slumped in the latest USA TODAY/Gallup poll, with the president’s rating hovering near the lowest of his tenure.
In the poll, taken Thursday through Sunday, 33% of Americans approve of Bush’s job performance and 62% disapprove. That compares to 38% approval and 56% disapproval in a USA TODAY/Gallup poll taken Nov. 2-5, just before the Nov. 7 midterm elections.
Bush, an asset for congressional candidates four years ago, was a liability for many this time. His approval rating was 42% in midterm exit polls. That’s 10 percentage points lower than on Election Day in 2004 and 24 points lower than in 2002.Sixteen percent of those who said they voted for Bush in 2004 supported Democrats in the midterms, according to exit polling.
Sixteen percent is a big number.
It indicates he’s returning to the level he was in the spring, where he seemingly lost his base. But parts of the GOP base started to slowly return to the party. It also represents support slippage from independents, moderates’s ranks.
Will this last? Perhaps NOT.
As Bush locks horns with the new Democratic majority (which is inevitable) it’s likely he’ll regain some of the GOPers who went AWOL. It’ll be tougher to regain support among moderates and independents, who don’t like polarization. But if the Democrats overstep (and they are showing a cautious but assertive style so far), Bush could re-gain moderate and independent support.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.