More bad polling news for President George W. Bush…this time from Fox News…and it’s clear that part of the erosion is due to Republicans souring on GWB:
More Americans disapprove than approve of how George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Congress are doing their jobs, while a majority approves of Condoleezza Rice. President Bush’s approval hits a record low of 33 percent this week, clearly damaged by sinking support among Republicans.
Yesterday’s White House changes, then, have to be seen against the background of this poll. Many reports suggested that the biggest opposition to now-resigned Press Secretary Scott McClellan came from GOP bigwigs who felt he wasn’t doing an effective job (even though he was well-liked in the administration and even among some reporters). And Karl Rove’s “demotion” is clearly meant to free up KR (providing he isn’t indicted) to concentrate on rounding up straying GOPers for the 2006 elections and bringing them back into the fold.
The picture painted by the poll isn’t pretty for the White House and suggests Rove may be a busy man, indeed:
Opinions are sharply divided on whether Rumsfeld should resign as secretary of defense. In addition, views on the economy are glum; most Americans rate the current economy negatively, and twice as many say it feels like the economy is getting worse rather than better. These are just some of the findings of the latest FOX News national poll.
President Bush’s job approval rating slipped this week and stands at a new low of 33 percent approve, down from 36 percent two weeks ago and 39 percent in mid-March. A year ago this time, 47 percent approved and two years ago 50 percent approved (April 2004).Approval among Republicans is below 70 percent for the first time of Bush’s presidency. Two-thirds (66 percent) approve of Bush’s job performance today, down almost 20 percentage points from this time last year when 84 percent of Republicans approved. Among Democrats, 11 percent approve today, while 14 percent approved last April.
“It seems clear that many Republicans, while they may still like and support George Bush, are growing uneasy with what may happen to their candidates — and the policies they support — in the November elections,” comments Opinion Dynamics Chairman John Gorman.
NOTE: Whenever we run a poll that shows what a particular polling company contends is a watershed shift in Bush’s numbers, we get feedback from Bush’s most loyal supporters claiming the methodology is bad, or the poll must have been conducted by some liberal polling company with a bias. This poll was put out by the company that may well supply the next Press Secretary for the White House (and, no, we don’t mean Geraldo Rivera).
PS: Yesterday’s changes may well help Bush among his wandering partisan supporters. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see some numbers start to go up. But the changes won’t change many Democrats’ minds. And independents are increasingly siding with Democrats in their criticism of this administration, if you look at most polls.
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.