Apparently President George Bush’s poll numbers have not bottomed out yet.
But Democrats shouldn’t take heart: the public holds them in low regard, too:
President Bush’s positive job rating continues to fall, touching another new low for his presidency, the latest Harris Interactive poll finds.
Bush’s current job approval rating stands at 34%, compared with a positive rating of 88% soon after 9/11, 50% at this time last year, and 40% in August.
And he’s not alone. Cabinet members, Congressional leaders and both parties in Congress have also seen their ratings slip, with Democrats seeing one of the biggest dips in approval, the telephone poll of 1,011 U.S. adults shows.
And what about Vice President Dick Cheney? He’s the man Bush has sent out to go on the attack against the Democrats. He must be in good standing with the public, right? Not exactly:
Vice President Dick Cheney’s approval ratings slipped to 30% this month from 35% in August, while Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s approval ratings dropped to 34% from 40% and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s approval ratings fell to 52% from 57%, according to the poll.
At the same time, only a quarter of Americans polled give Democrats a positive rating in the latest poll, compared with 31% in August, while Republicans’ approval ratings fell to 27% from 32%.
And to those who argue that Bush’s polls are the same as most other presidents in their second terms, this poll suggests that perhaps they need to go back and re-read their history:
Mr. Bush’s current ratings don’t compare favorably with those of three of the last four two-term presidents at a comparable time in their fifth year in office. In November or October of their fifth year, Presidents Johnson (67%), Reagan (66%) and Clinton (58%) all enjoyed the support of majorities, while President Nixon (29%) was less popular than Mr. Bush is now.
In the most recent poll, Americans were also asked to name the two most important issues that the U.S. government needs to address. When considering the most important issues, 34% of those polled say the war is most important, 13% said the economy and 13% said Iraq. Other issues mentioned were health care (11%), education (10%) and taxes (9%).
This would explain some of what we’re seeing in the administration’s offensive on the war debate where they’re questioning the patriotism of Democrats. Poll numbers continue to drop, but the Democrats are only marginally more popular than the Republicans. So there is a vulnerability there and administration operatives are working on trying to exploit it, to bring the Democrats’ numbers down.
It remains an iffy strategy, since the problem Bush faces is not due to a strong, well organized Democratic base. It’s due to loss of support among some non-lockstep Republicans (they do exist) and independents. Lectures from Dick Cheney may not impress them.
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.