Posted on 02/27/2006 5:06:03 PM PST by HitmanLV
(CBS) The latest CBS News poll finds President Bush's approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 34 percent, while pessimism about the Iraq war has risen to a new high.
Americans are also overwhelmingly opposed to the Bush-backed deal giving a Dubai-owned company operational control over six major U.S. ports. Seven in 10 Americans, including 58 percent of Republicans, say they're opposed to the agreement.
CBS News senior White House correspondent Jim Axelrod reports that now it turns out the Coast Guard had concerns about the ports deal, a disclosure that is no doubt troubling to a president who assured Americans there was no security risk from the deal.
The troubling results for the Bush administration come amid reminders about the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina and negative assessments of how the government and the president have handled it for six months.
In a separate poll, two out of three Americans said they do not think President Bush has responded adequately to the needs of Katrina victims. Only 32 percent approve of the way President Bush is responding to those needs, a drop of 12 points from last September’s poll, taken just two weeks after the storm made landfall.
Mr. Bush's overall job rating has fallen to 34 percent, down from 42 percent last month. Fifty-nine percent disapprove of the job the president is doing.
For the first time in this poll, most Americans say the president does not care much about people like themselves. Fifty-one percent now think he doesn't care, compared to 47 percent last fall.
Just 30 percent approve of how Mr. Bush is handling the Iraq war, another all-time low.
By two to one, the poll finds Americans think U.S. efforts to bring stability to Iraq are going badly – the worst assessment yet of progress in Iraq.
Even on fighting terrorism, which has long been a strong suit for Mr. Bush, his ratings dropped lower than ever. Half of Americans say they disapprove of how he's handling the war on terror, while 43 percent approve.
In a bright spot for the administration, most Americans appeared to have heard enough about Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident.
More then three in four said it was understandable that the accident had occurred and two-thirds said the media had spent too much time covering the story.
Still, the incident appears to have made the public's already negative view of Cheney a more so. Just 18 percent said they had a favorable view of the vice president, down from 23 percent in January.
Americans were evenly split on whether or not Cheney's explanation of why there was a delay in reporting the accident was satisfactory.
There is almost no doubt in my mind that this poll is fairly accurate.
The Bush administration has a crisis every week. Usually by their own doing. I don't know what they expect.
I can't imagine the level of obliviousness that thinks that a 34% approval rating is no problem. Or pretends that it is some kind of MSM illusion.
You are absolutely right. If we lose the House there WILL be a special prosecutor. There WILL be an impeachment. And we can forget about 2008 unless the Dems do something really stupid (like nominating Hillary or putting buttcrack marriage in the platform).
What about the 58% of Republicans against Bush over the ports deal?
I think more people are identifying themseleves as democrats and independents. The polls are accurate.
What a comedy act. Nothing more predictable than the bogus MSM polls that come out as soon as they think they've got Bush on the ropes. And then they react with shock and dismay when the actual elections are different than their lying polls. I personally have gotten to the point where I like these polls coming out, because it makes the democrat pain even worse when they lose every election.
He is a leader, do you support the President?
Repubs seem to be difficult to find. Probably not home washing down their oxycontin with box wine. (not that there is anything wrong with box wine)
And what is going to turn this around for Bush ? A collapse in the housing market ? A mushroom cloud in Iran ? A 'guest worker' program ? Do you really believe that all American troops will be out of Iraq in 2008 ?
"They're trying to balance out the bad news...record low casualties in Iraq, Iraq not sinking into civil war, the economy running along smoothly..."
You've got that right! Plus, I heard a snippet today on Rush that our GDP for the first quarter is going to be up 4-6%.
The MSM is just laying the landmines against more Good News to come. :)
"Coming from CBS, there's no real way to interpret such a claim."
Well, there have been enough of these polls for us to recognize that the current Bush administration is not good at managing the press. You don't have to like the press the manage them but McClellan, Rumsfeld and Cheney seem worse than average at concealing their contempt and working with the vipers.
Well if you say so, it must be true. And the many against the port deal no nothing about the port deal except an Arab country is involved.
It's just CBS. No one watches them anyway.
No man rates my unquestioning obedience. Has it ever occurred to you that a leader can be dead wrong ?
BWAHHAHHA. Dan Rather, is that really you? Did you miss the polling demographic breakdown?
Hate to burst your bubble but no one was going to beat Eisenhower in 1952. He was being courted by both parties but just happened to agree a bit more with the Republicans of the time than with the Democrats. If he had run as a Democrat, he would have won in a landslide.
What some of these scholars are suggesting is to turn over our government to the MSM. The MSM doesn't like a president all they need to do is fabricate crisis after crisis, drive down "their" poll numbers and the government collapses.
Hmmmmmmm? I guess total surrender to the MSM seems the easy route for them. I think I'll fight it out and say screw the MSM.
Doesn't matter - CBS isn't running for office in November, but the Republicans are. This is a direct result of the ports deal. I opined last week that this deal was a) wrong on its merits and b)a political stinker for the Republicans, but I was soundly attacked. To the inevitable snide comment that Bush can't run again, I merely point out that ALL republican House members and a fair number of Senate republicans are up for re-election this year. Bush is handing the congress to the Democrats over this stupid issue.
Mark my words: this President will n-o-t be elected to a third term!
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