Bush's poll numbers at new low - USA Today results just out

[kstewart33]

President's poll ratings still flagging
By Richard Benedetto, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Escalating violence in Iraq and growing public unease triggered by mounting American deaths there have eroded President Bush's personal and job approval ratings in the past several months. They're at or near the lowest points measured since he took office, a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll shows.

The findings may signal a changing composition of the political landscape as the 2004 presidential campaign begins in earnest. They suggest that with an economic recovery still struggling to emerge and an uncertain postwar picture, the public is reassessing previous conclusions about Bush as a man and as a leader.


http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-11-17-bush-poll_x.htm

[West Coast Democrat]

1. And CBS has him at 49% Approval

And two weeks ago the mediawhores declared BushCo to be leveling off at 55%!!!

[Catfish]

2. I don't understand this

From the article:

"Regardless of how they rate the job he is doing, 68% say they approve of him as a person, 59% say he is honest and trustworthy and 66% say he is a strong and decisive leader."

Sure, I'm partisan but there has never been a more dishonest President in my lifetime. How can 59% say he is trustworthy given the lies he told in the buildup to the Iraqi war? How can 59% say he is honest when he lied about who would benefit from his tax cuts? I could type for the next hour and still not be able to list all his lies.

[underpants]

8. Well let's see 70% thought Saddam was involved in 9/11

80% of people whose main source of news is FoxNews think that one of the following statements are true:

WMD have been found in Iraq
Saddam was an imminent threat (something like that)
World opinion was in favor of the War on Iraq.

[DUreader]

21. The same goes for 50% of NPR listeners

[MrSoundAndVision]

31. and that sucks

but I could hear why during the march to war.

[underpants]

40. I think CBS was 70% ABC 60% NBC 50%

Which is directly opposite of those networks' coverage.......as I see it.

[atre]

45. That's not true- Reread that article

50% of the NPR listeners who support George W. Bush think that Saddam was tied to the 9-11 attacks, while 0% of NPR listeners who support a Democratic candidate held that misconception. Something like 20% of NPR listeners overall hold that misconception.

[alcuno]

47. But 0% of Democratic NPR /PBS people believed any on them

I looked at the internals of that poll a while back and for Democrats, it was 0%.

[lancdem]

10. I agree, but the silver lining is

Bush's honesty ratings used to be much higher than 59 percent. And 40 percent don't think he's honest, which is a sizable minority. I still think some people continue to blame Bush's advisers for his problems and don't hold him accountable.
Also, don't you all love the headline? "Bush's ratings STILL flagging" - as if they're disappointed he's not more popular. :eyes:

[underpants]

14. Better than the "Bush stops the bleeding" from last week

Not only was that a horrible choice of words that poll (can't remmeber which one) had similar but slightly better for W numbers. The difference between these two headlines say plenty about how his numbers are where they are.

[otohara]

11. Media WhoreSpeak

Gotta say something positive about the chimp, other wise you get kicked out of press pool

[Malva Zebrina]

13. scared to say otherwise

that's all. Telephone conversations are taped and Ashcroft has the power--scared to say anything bad against the pResidunce.

[0007]

16. "tis a puff that's all

[iam]

22. Conservatives

control the media and since his lies only resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Americans and thousands of Iraqis instead of lies about sex, no one cares.

[BadGimp]

28. 2 words

cognitive dissonance

n. Psychology
A condition of conflict or anxiety resulting from inconsistency between one's beliefs and one's actions, such as opposing the slaughter of animals and eating meat.

[snippy]

29. The majority of Americans do not follow politics at all.

They think that whoever happens to be the president must be doing an okay job or he wouldn't be president in the first place. Some, but not all, of these people do vote though.

[jokerman93]

36. He's a good christian cowboy from texas! n/t

[schultzee]

43. I have heard that one from a friend so much I hate it.

[PurityOfEssence]

54. No, he's a bad demonic pedestrian from Connecticut

Scared of horses, born in effete New England, of some fanatical stripe of intolerance guesswork and meaner'n a snake.

Big tough butch cowboy who's so scared of horsies that he can't even ride one; why do you think he's George WALKER Bush?

[Chomskyite]

38. My explanation

People really don't think Bush is in charge. They see him as the tool of his advisors. They think he was hoodwinked by the likes of Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, etc. They see him as disengaged from his own foreign policy apparatus.

[Betty]

46. that alone

should be enough to convince anyone with two brain cells that he 100% unqualified for the job. But since there are so many stupid intellecstually lay (like him) people in this coun try, we all have to suffer.

[GOPBasher]

41. I also believe he's a "strong and decisive leader."

That's not a good thing or a bad thing; it can be either. Hitler was a strong and decisive leader as well. Bush is a very strong leader for the neocon adenda.

As for the other two things, I agree. How the hell can anyone like this guy?

[schultzee]

44. He is afraid to speak before the MPs because of heckling and

thats not strong, thats a wimp.

[tom_paine]

57. It a Coward's "Strength"

Hitler had it. Stalin had it. Marcos and Baby Doc had it. Idi Amin had it, as did all the other leaders of Bunnypants* ilk.

It is the strength of knowing you rule over a slave people who you can do ANYTHING to and get away with it.

Of course he is a coward at heart, like Hitler.

And he has a Coward's "Strength", like Hitler.

[kitkatrose]

50. I'm confused too.

I was taught that actions reveal true character. If his actions are crap, then this personality should be crap too. So why the discreprency between numbers? I really don't understand the logic some people use to make decisions. :shrug:

[Cush]

3. But...but

The economy is getting better! We're winning in Iraq!

That evil Liberal Media! Evil Evil! Evil!

[LittleDannySlowhorse]

15. Terra! 9-11!

Media filter! "March to war! March to war! March to war!" There's a log in my eye!*

(*The preceding has been my impression of the Stepford President malfunctioning and sputtering out his usual lines in an effort to spin his way out of this. It wasn't that effective but you get the idea.)

[jenk]

4. bush is in for a long, cold, dark winter

[underpants]

5. Poll tracking

http://www.pollkatz.homestead.com/files/pollkatzcontentpage.html

[Wickerman]

12. Oh, I do like that approval vs relect graph

[VolcanoJen]

55. It's the Re-Elect Number, Stupid.

:D

[TahitiNut]

35. I like PollKatz. This one is particularly telling ...

The (non-Iraqi) fatality rate is as high now as at the outset ... over 3/day.

[blueseas]

6. Here is hoping it stays low

And gets even lower.

[underpants]

9. I expect his numbers to stay in that area for a while

Once again he will actually gain from his failures. People will hold the line at about 50% due to the war unless something horrible happens and if Saddam is found expect the numbers to go back up for a while.

Don't worry I think he has alienated some of the votes (military, family of military, etc) that they can usually take for granted. I hear it all the time. It will be close but have faith his 47% in 2000 is not even steady right now.

[lancdem]

7. When I first saw this I thought it was the CNN poll

from Nov. 10-12, but it's a new one (Nov. 14-16) that has Bush at 50 percent approval, 47 percent disapproval. I encourage everyone to read the poll results link in the article. There's a lot of amazing stuff there. Especially this: 44 percent of registered voters say they'll likely vote for Bush in 2004 and 43 percent for the Dem. But that masks the real story, which is that only 22 percent are certain to vote for Bush in 2004 while 33 PERCENT ARE CERTAIN TO VOTE AGAINST HIM! The anti-Bush people clearly outnumber the hardcore Bush supporters.

[Beetwasher]

33. Indeed, and this is NOT mentioned in the article, you have to go to the

rest of the poll results. Instead, in the article they mention his "likeability and honesty" numbers which are pretty meaningless compared to his re-elects...

[Barrett808]

17. "almost-daily attacks" -- grrrr

This is a deception I see all the time in US media. The attacks are occurring daily -- what they mean is "almost-daily deaths". By all reports, the rate of attacks has increased to something like 35-45 a day.

This blandishment makes the situation look substantially less grim than it actually is.

[lancdem]

18. Good catch

[DrBB]

19. Good call--something like 30 attacks per day currently

...and up considerably from what it was in September. I've read that that's being viewed as a sign of increased coordination and control.

Fortunately, we now know that we can interpret these figures as evidence that our stragedy, er, stragetry, er, policy is working.

[TacticalPeek]

24. I heard a TV talking head yesterday

(Tweety? maybe not) refer to 20 to 30 attacks per week. I know that could just be 'misspeaking', but it sounded 'intended' to me. I think they simply thought it was 'per week' because only a few get coverage, so they simply were conveying their reasonable misconception.

[snippy]

30. General Sanchez said 30-35 attacks per day.

From an October 23, 2003 article:

In Baghdad, the U.S. ground forces commander said Wednesday troops have seen a spike in attacks.

"I think clearly the number of wounded, also the number of engagements over the past three weeks, have been a little bit higher than we've seen before," Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said.

"We've seen an average number of (daily) engagements between 20 and 25. We've seen a spike up to 35 in (the) last three weeks."

That's up from an average of between 15 and 20, Sanchez said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/10/22/sprj.irq.main/index.html

This was reported at the same time that Rummy leaked his memo.

[54anickel]

49. Has anyone else noticed the reports of attacks have dropped the

last 2 days? Is the media filter getting better?

[fizzana]

20. Great e-mail read on CNN this morning

In response to the poll in England that 37% think Bush is stupid, someone wrote in that this proves 63% of Britains are liars.

[lancdem]

23. LOL!

[truthisfreedom]

25. you probably won't see his poll numbers drop below this point.

whether it's manipulation or pure stupidity on the part of Americans, somebody voted for the guy. idiots.

[xxqqqzme]

26. re-assessing conclusions.....

as a leader? When, please someone, please tell me, has squatter ever been a leader????? He couldn't lead ants 2 sugar cubes.

[West Coast Democrat]

27. That Disapproval Number is SKY HIGH!

47%!!

Also note, at the bottom of the article under "Related Advertising Links," they list, at random, sites like DeanForAmerica.com and Clark04.com.

[alfredo]

42. the disapproval numbers are very important.

With them that high, I don't see much hope for him to legally keep his job.

[Beetwasher]

32. Why the Heck

Do you have to practically read to the end of the damn story to get the friggin' number? Why do they mention his once 72% approval first?

These are rhetorical questions, don't answer. We know why. Because they're doing everything in their power to play down these dismal numbers. Will this be trumpeted as loudly as his "boost" that happened recently?

[are_we_united_yet]

48. I must answer this...

The media sucks

[number6]

34. I think it should be about 0.049 %

..

[jokerman93]

37. Uh-oh! Does this mean it's time...

1) to find the WMD they've planted?

2) for another terrorist crisis in Amerikaland?

3) declare victory and a total media blackout in Eye-raq?

4) to start another war?

[depakid]

39. Like I believe ANYTHING Gannet releases. N/T

!

[goforit]

51. That "NewLOW" has been quoted for the last 2 months!!!!

They 50 50 50 50 one hundred times over and still say it's falling.

It Shows how staged the polls really are!!!!

[0007]

52. Shoddy shoddy numbers by a sloppy frighten media ......

and liver lipped poll takers.

Is this proof we're living in a thrid world country, or what?

[wabeewoman]

53. I remember when Reagan ran for a 2nd term

and I was sure no one would vote for him because of the debt, iran contra, his homophobia, and a bunch more but he was a 'personable' guy and people liked him. I swear that is why he was re-elected. He was likable. I have noticed lately the pictures being printed of bush aren't that flattering and if they show him live, he smirks or sneers and makes stupid faces. I don't get how anyone thinks he is charming. He isn't even articulate! To me that is the BIGGEST mystery of all-how anyone finds the little puke charming. Ugh!

[GalleryGod]

56. Feckthose "Tea leaves" Gang! Full Steam Ahead!

:grouphug: We CAN do this! DeanyBoppers? Kerryites! Clarkies!? AWLright!,Let's DO it!

[radfringe]

58. Cares about the needs of people like you" - 50% say NO

http://www.pollingreport.com/


President Bush and the Bush Administration

CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll. Nov. 14-16, 2003. N=1,004 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.

"Thinking about the following characteristics and qualities, please say whether you think it applies or doesn't apply to George W. Bush. How about ?"
http://www.pollingreport.com/bush.htm

Cares about the needs of people like you"
Applies / Doesn't Apply / No Opinion
11/03 49 50 1

"Is honest and trustworthy"
11/03 59 40 1

"Is a person you admire"
11/03 50 49 1

"Is a strong and decisive leader"
11/03 66 34 -

"Shares your values"
11/03 53 46 1

"Generally agrees with you on issues you care about"
11/03 48 51 1

"Can get the economy moving"
11/03 48 50 2

"Is in touch with the problems ordinary Americans face in their daily lives"
11/03 42 57 1