Question: before these new poll numbers came out, as he ran the ship of state, did President George Bush climb atop the White House and yell: “I’m King of the World!!”
It wouldn’t be surprising since these latest Harris Bush job approval poll numbers do make you think of an infamous historical event that became a mega-hit movie:
President Bush’s job approval ratings are at their lowest point of his presidency as only 40% of U.S. adults have a favorable opinion of his job performance and 58% have a negative opinion, according to a Harris Interactive poll.
This is a decline from two months ago, when the president’s ratings were 45% positive and 55% negative. The war in Iraq and the economy climbed to the top of a list of issues Americans say are most important for the U.S. to address. Social Security declined sharply.
At the same time, Vice President Dick Cheney’s approval ratings slipped to 35% from 38% in June, while Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s approval ratings dropped to 40% from 42%. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is the only cabinet member whose approval ratings rose, to 57% from 52% in June.
So should the Demmies dance a jig of joy? No. They and the GOPers got lousy polling results as well. There seem to be enough political black eyes to go around.
But one thing is now certain: Bush’s poll ratings are trending downwards. He is not picking up new support. There seems to be a steady erosion — and if other polls are correct many of the defections are coming from independent voters who gave him the benefit of the doubt.
And the biggest issue, according to the poll? The war.
So what can the White House do about this? Launch a new PR campaign? Say those who don’t agree on the war don’t care about winning the war on terrorism?
OOPS! They’ve already done that.
So what might help is the kind of head-of-state talk from the oval office that successful and struggling Presidents have done for years: one that doesn’t seek to polarize but lays out a bunch of facts (as perceived by the administration) in an overkill of information. But done in a way so the White House can’t be accused of just asking for air time to make a political speech and not containing any passages that seek to divide the country. Just FACTS.
OUTLOOK: These polls basically show Bush’s political clout is waning fast. It’s hard to foresee anything turning it around, other than another terrorist attack on U.S. soil — and even there this administration has opted for the politics of polarization so often that the kind of unity the country experienced in the immediate post-911 period is unlikely to materalize again. And, if it did, it’d be limited in scope and peppered with great reluctance and skepticism in some quarters.
MORE READING ON THIS SUBJECT:
Iraq War Sees Bush Approval Rating Plummet
Bush’s Poll Ratings Drop In Georgia
Democats Not Gaining From Bush’s Low Poll Numbers
The Washington Post’s Dan Froomkin says this is a definite TREND…and puts this poll in perspective showing how the numbers in various polls are trending south for GWB.
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.