Posted on 09/10/2005 5:12:46 AM PDT by Brian Mosely
WASHINGTON - President Bush's job approval has dipped below 40 percent for the first time in the AP-Ipsos poll, reflecting widespread doubts about his handling of gasoline prices and the response to Hurricane Katrina.
Nearly four years after Bush's job approval soared into the 80s after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Bush was at 39 percent job approval in an AP-Ipsos poll taken this week. That's the lowest since the the poll was started in December 2003.
The public's view of the nation's direction has grown increasingly negative as well, with nearly two-thirds now saying the country is heading down the wrong track.
"As a nation, we are pretty well stretched," said Barry Allen, a political independent from Reed City, Mich. "I approve of some of the things the president has done, and disapprove of others. Overall, I disapprove."
Allen said he liked some of Bush's economic steps during his first term but has been dissatisfied with the president's economic moves in his second term, his Iraq policy and his handling of gasoline prices.
Allen worries Hurricane Katrina has taken the wind out of an economy that was moving in the right direction.
With gasoline racing past $3 a gallon, Bush's standing on dealing with those prices may be one of his biggest problems — seven in 10 said they disapprove.
And just over half in the poll, 52 percent, said they disapprove of the president's handling of the hurricane.
For Bill Kane of Kingsland, Ga., the government's slow response to the hurricane "was terrifying to see in our own country. It made you mad, because it made you think where's our money going?"
More evidence of problems with the storm response surfaced Friday when the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced it would discontinue a 2-day-old program to issue debit cards worth to displaced families.
The administration also dumped FEMA Director Michael Brown, who had come to symbolize the stumbling early days of the hurricane response, as commander of Katrina relief efforts.
Brown once served as the judges and stewards commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association.
"Bush puts people in jobs who don't know what they're doing," said Shirley Carignan, a retiree and a political independent from Weymouth, Mass. "I think he's picking friends for these jobs. My girlfriend raises Arabians. You know horses, so what? Horses and people are different things."
The number of people who think the country is on the wrong track grew from 59 percent last month to 65 percent this month. Tumbling consumer confidence after Hurricane Katrina may be contributing to that sense of pessimism.
The RBC CASH Index, based on polling by Ipsos, showed that consumer confidence sank in September to the lowest level since early March 2003 before the start of the Iraq war.
Economic woes and a continuing war in Iraq have been complicated by the continuing hurricane recovery crisis.
"A lot of Americans don't pay attention to their leaders on a day-to-day basis," said Robert Blendon, a public opinion analyst at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. "They measure presidents, governors and mayors on how they handle big events like a hurricane. This event is not over because the bodies are going to be discovered day by day."
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On the Net:
Ipsos: http://www.ap-ipsosresults.com
The Flash!!! Wow, crime must be on the wane if he has time to talk to a pollster.
The power of the MSM is decreasing, and GWB has benefited from the rise of the alternative media, BUT
Five years of unremitting propaganda, lies, and attacks have taken their toll, and this is at least partly the fault of the White House political operation.
Karl the Great has been brilliant on Election Day, for which we have to be thankful
But the other 364 days, the WH propaganda effort has been pitiful. It is not sufficient, in countering a propaganda onslaught of Nazi-like proportions, to say "trust the people". No successful President has ever failed to respond to attacks by his enemies, not one.
This does not mean that a President can succeed by propaganda alone, his administration must also act.
But allowing the media and the opposition party to attack from safe havens while not going after them is foolish, and the results are showing.
Nagin and blanco should have hired them to drive the buses now under water to evacuate people. Seems they have practice.
the democrat run New Orleans and Louisiana are not third world, they are fourth world.
"I still approve of Bush, but he's needs to stop trying to get everyone to like him, he needs to get ugly."
You'd like that wouldn't you.
President Bush doesn't need to sink to the gutter level of UGLY LIBERALS. Let ugly (sado-masochist)liberals feast off each others misery.
Journalism was suppose to be about reporting real events. No longer. It is about shaping the news and conducting stupid polls about the lies you just told. Polls are NOT news, they are opinions and usually opinions based upon questions formulated to yield a predetermined result.
Unfortunately, we have way to many people that believe this crap and they are allowed to vote and operate cars.
This poll is crap, the Gallup Organization came out with a poll 3 days ago that showed on 13% of Americans blamed Bush for the governments' (local, State, and Federal) slow reaction. Also, Rasmussen is the only poll I trust when it comes to the President's approval rating (he's currently at 46%).
I thought that was Cow-tipping!
CC
They didn't poll me. Nobody in my family was polled. Nobody that I know was polled. I look at them as attempts to influence opinion and further an agenda. I ignore them for the most part, because they don't affect my opinion. The percentages on election day are the only ones that matter, and Republicans have been doing pretty good at those polls.
This poll, like 99% of polls is worthless. Without the underlying information there is no way to gauge the poll's accuracy. Except to wonder WHY the info is hidden.There was a CBS poll posted here yesterday. At least with that poll you could see what was going on behind the curtain. (In that case, oversampling RATS).
There outta be a law :) that forces the pollsters to release ALL the info about the poll.
I agree with your eval and hope some one with b@ll$ comes in as an independent I am tired of both parties. the ruling class needs replaced.
Jim Lehrer on his program on PBS Friday evening had on Andrew Kohut to gloat over the latest poll numbers from Pew--they have Bush's popularity at 40%.
I never been polled, who cares what the media reports; he is love here and all over red nation and in most blue states, except in the dems controlled cesspool areas.Viva Dubya
All I know is that the GOP better not let the dummycraps off the hook in these Katrina hearings or I will NEVER give any mony to the GOP.
The GOP better lower the beber on them.
Well according to the most accurate pollster of the 2004 Election Bush is at 48%.
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