Yet ANOTHER poll, this time from Newsweek, showing President George W. Bush setting another record for his popularity — southward, that is:
In the wake of the bombings in Jordan by suspected followers of Iraq’s Al Qaeda chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the indictment of top White House aide I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby and the withdrawal of Harriet Miers’s nomination to the Supreme Court, President George W. Bush is sinking deeper and deeper into political trouble, according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll.
Only 36 percent of Americans approve of the job he is doing as president, and an astounding 68 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with the direction of the country—the highest in Bush’s presidency. But that’s not the worst of it for the 43rd president of the United States, a leader who rode comfortably to reelection just a year ago. Half of all Americans now believe he’s not “honest and ethical.�
But there is good news, too. Sort of:
The president can take some solace in the fact that 42 percent of Americans believe he is honest and ethical. Only 29 percent believe that Vice President Dick Cheney is. And more than a quarter of Republicans, 26 percent, believe the vice president is not honest and ethical. The growing credibility gap could have ramifications across the president’s agenda: 56 percent of Americans say Bush “won’t be able to get much done;� only 36 percent say he “can be effective.�
Newsweek then notes GWB’s Veterans’ Day speech in which he basically said Democrats were undercutting the war effort. But, Newsweek notes, it’s not only Democrats who are skeptical and asking tough questions these days:
But Democrats aren’t the only ones questioning the administration’s Iraq policies—almost 2 in 3 Americans (65 percent) disapprove of the president’s handling of Iraq.
And that links directly to the credibility issue. Fifty-two percent of Americans believe Cheney “deliberately misused or manipulated pre-war intelligence about Iraq’s nuclear capabilities in order to build support for war,� including 22 percent of Republicans and 54 percent of independents.
Watch what’s happening with independent voters. Bush and the GOP did NOT win elections by getting votes ONLY from Republicans. They have also taken a chunk of votes from independents — who are now deserting them.
Another significant point underscoring Bush’s efforts to turn war debate into Us Versus Them (meaning the White House, Republicans and America against the Democrats):
Most worrisome for the White House: the base seems to be cracking. When asked whether anyone in the administration “acted unethically� in the case involving the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame’s name, a 54-percent majority of Americans said they did—and 30 percent of Republicans said they did. And 45 percent of Americans believe someone in the “Bush administration broke the law and acted criminally�—including 22 percent of Republicans.
What does it mean?
For one thing, insisting that everyone saw the same intelligence info will not impact what’s being alleged in the Plame case. And that case will generate MORE news stories in coming months as it goes to trial.
The poll suggests that the Rovian approach in Bush’s Veterans’ Day speech of turning questions about the war into an issue of Democrats not supporting the troops and the war (and, by implication, being unpatriotic) is clearly an attempt to push the hot buttons that have worked before in mobilizing the GOP’s conservative base.
The problem is, in the past when the base was mobilized Bush could count on a large number of independents to back him. It appears as if those days are now over — and if you look at this poll it suggests the White House strategy of turning war criticism (and some of it is being voiced by Republicans, although Bush left that out of his speech) into an issue of the loyalty of Democrats could actually backfire.
Bush could continue to lose support from independents and from the less-lockstep members of his base — the ones who don’t turn on a dime to change their views if Bush changes his. So, unless some things change, Bush could be left governing with only the support of his hard-core conservative base in what could be a long, painful three years.