Bush's Approval Rating Drops Sharply (Bush approval: 59%)

Washington Post ^ | 07/12/03 | Richard Morin and Claudia Deane

[Pokey78]

Public support for President Bush has dropped sharply amid growing concerns about U.S. military casualties and doubts whether the war with Iraq was worth fighting, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Bush's overall job approval rating dropped to 59 percent, down nine points in the past 18 days. That decline exactly mirrored the slide in public support for Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq, which now stands at 58 percent.

And for the first time, slightly more than half the country -- 52 percent -- believes there has been an "unacceptable" level of U.S. casualties in Iraq, up eight points in less than three weeks.

Still, only 26 percent said there had been more casualties than they had expected. Three in four say they expect "significantly more" American dead and wounded.

[veronica]

59% is a very respectable number. My recollection is that Bush has been hovering at around 60% recently, so what's the big whoop about this poll? Funny how these push polls come out just as the press is pushing its agenda - that agenda of course being to smear President Bush and delegitimize the Iraq war. Push an agenda, then take a poll to try and bolster that agenda. Happens all the time. Especially with an election coming up, and the Democrats stuck in a quagmire. ;) I do think however that Bush looks goofy schlepping around Africa, when the situation is still so dicey in Iraq. The war is ongoing, and the WH needs to take that into account in it's general attitude and political strategery. What the heck is a trip to Africa going to do for his administration at this point in time?

[bushfamfan]

Yes, he is going to get raked over the coals again with the vacation. I'd cut it down if I were him.

[bushfamfan]

Interesting that the members here on FR wouldn't hear the same things you're hearing about how it is scary in Iraq and not good. That widespread? What areas are your friends in? We have to stay there until we find out what happened to the WMD either way. We cannot just walk out and think it'll somehow be better then. Obviously the war isn't over, but I figured so much as there would be these kind of attacks, but we have to stabilize it and put an end to it.

[snooker]

I suspect Bush will speak to the nation when they get most of the WMDs and other data together.

What the dims are doing is trying to force the issue before the troops can get the data together. So far Bush is resisting and taking some hits. But personally I think he should hold off until the WMD data is mostly resolved.

You saw how fast the media went by the Centrifuge parts under the rose bush find. What does the media think you need to operate the centrifuge? What is it for?

There is a history of Iraq getting Uranium/yellow cake from Africa that goes back over 20 years.

Wouldn't it be nice if one of the dwarfs said what they would do that would be better than what is being done?

[dagnabbit]

Millions of illegal aliens will be eligible for Jorge Bush's amnesty, or as its known under the newest bit of Clinton-speak, "path to citizenship". Millions is massive.

But once again Jorge you are still correct. Your namesake's latest assault on American sovereignty will not be a 100.00 percent "blanket" amnesty. Therefore it will be a good thing, every Bush criticism on this thread is wrong, and we can all rest easy in Bush-bot land.

[Aetius]

You are right, the fringe doesn't win presidential elections. But the sad thing is that on so many of the contentious social issues the conservative position is the mainstream, majority postion.
The majority oppose racial preferences, yet the President and the GOP do liitle more than pay lip service to this sentiment. And if the Connerly story is true, they infact actively oppose measures to get rid of racial preferences.
The majority ( at least for now) opposes gay marriage. So far Bush and the GOP haven't caved on this one.
The majority, or at least a plurality, want legal immigration levels reduced according to most polls. I've seen the % in favor of reduction as low as the mid 40s and as high as the upper 70s.
The majority opposes amnesties for illegal immigrants, and supports using troops on the border to stop the inflow.
If a Republican were to actively, aggressively champion these issues it could be a huge political winner. He need only respond sggressively to the inevitable, but bogus, cries of racism, bigotry, and xenophobia. The mainstream would respond to such a brave, maverick approach because someone would finally be giving voice to their own beliefs with no apologies.

[Joe Hadenuf]

I think every president since Reagan deserved to be one-termers. None protected U.S. sovereignty, borders, language or culture (Reagan and his amnesty get a pass only because it wasn't as clear then that open borders were destroying America).

Exactly, these politicos regardless of which of the two beltway parties their in , have just stood by and watched American become a land of illegal aliens, chaos and fraud........It's nothing short of traitorous........

[af_vet_rr]

nteresting that the members here on FR wouldn't hear the same things you're hearing about how it is scary in Iraq and not good. That widespread? What areas are your friends in? We have to stay there until we find out what happened to the WMD either way. We cannot just walk out and think it'll somehow be better then. Obviously the war isn't over, but I figured so much as there would be these kind of attacks, but we have to stabilize it and put an end to it.

I'm not going to say where they are at, because of the "loose lips" policy on FR (not to mention my own common sense that tells me not to). Members here on FR are hearing the same things, even if they don't have friends/family in Iraq - this article at the Washington Post was posted a couple of times, discussing General Franks comments on the war (it is still a war). This is just one of many articles that is posted every week (this one was from thursday and I found it notable because it actually discussed comments from General Franks).

Some members of FR choose to believe the war ended over a month ago. That's fine, they are allowed to believe that.

You are absolutely right, we can't leave until we find out what happened to the WMD. If we walk out now, we'll be back 10 years from now, just as what happened when we walked away in '91.

Unfortunately we can't just "stabilize it and put an end to it" because there won't be an end to it as long as new recruits are flowing over the border from Syria and Jordan and Iran - we need to hold those countries accountable for what they are allowing to happen.

As long as we are in the middle east, and as long as we have islamics who are willing to die if they think they can kill or wound an American soldier, we are going to have this. This goes back to before the USS Cole was bombed, and has been going on since '91 (and I include Somalia in it). People pretend that it's not happening, but it is. It will continue to happen unless we make it so costly for the attackers that it stops.

[af_vet_rr]

Wouldn't it be nice if one of the dwarfs said what they would do that would be better than what is being done?

Thanks for the laugh. The only solution they could probably come up with, is to send more aid. Because bribery does wonders - look at how much of our money was thrown away during the clintons and the end results we have (9/11, Somalia, embassy bombings, etc.)

[Mo1]

Too many

[snooker]

It does get a little boring watching the dwarfs just critize and offer no options. The public is wise, it will only take a replay of some video of 9/11 to knock the dims into a crash and burn spiral.

If Bush is sitting on WMD proof, which seems logical it will be a death spiral.

If anyone had told you on 9/12/01 that we would not have any major terror attcks in the US by now, would you have believed them? This is credits Bush has built up for use in the next election. I only hope he keeps the streak going.

[deedgirl]

Why do the republicans always remain silent,expose these assh---es for what they are!

[Ann Archy]

Hello Newbie.....July 11, 2003...paragraphs are our friends.

[Ann Archy]

The month long vacation is because of Congress being on vacation for a whole month, so there is NOTHING ANY President can push and get accomplished.

Anyway, last year, Bush was ON THE ROAD visting places and doing thing s MOST of his VACATION!! If you want to scream about time off, aim towards CONGRESS!

[Jorge]

Millions of illegal aliens will be eligible for Jorge Bush's amnesty, or as its known under the newest bit of Clinton-speak, "path to citizenship". Millions is massive.

Well whenever you find some evidence or actual documentation to support this claim, I'd be glad to hear about it.

[dagnabbit]

Yes Jorge, the coming Bush illegal-alien amnesty will be for millions of illegals:

The article in question (below, from direct, on-the-record comments from a Bush spokeswoman) is about how the Bush White House rejects Sen. Cornyn's amnesty as not generous enough. Apparently Cornyn's amnesty, which it seems would amnesty any and all of the 8.7 million illegals in our country, isn't good enough for la Casa Blanca, perhaps becasuse it "only" guarantees a 3-year amnesty.

White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said Bush administration officials have met with Cornyn, a Republican, to discuss his bill, but did not commit the president's support. Rather, Bush is set to pursue bold policies similar to those he had advocated to boost relations with Mexico early in his administration. Those discussions, which included possible amnesty for some illegal immigrants, came to an abrupt end on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon.

The last link, if you could manage it, was to how "bold policies similar to those he had advocated [before 9-11]" meant about 3 million illegals getting amnesty. Again, last time around "some" was Bush/Clinton-speak for 3 million, and the White House is telling reporters that this time around is going to be like the last time.

Really Jorge, you have to learn more about how Washington, and the world for that matter, operate. Controversial proposals are not floated with simple Jorge-friendly declarative sentences like "I will give 3 million illegals amnesty". Bushie Jr's father, I'm sure, never said such a thing back in 1990 when he proposed his amnesty, though that piece of treason has since given us over 2 million amnestied illegals.

If logic, inference and reasoning still aren't to your liking, and you want to learn more about Bush and his support of illegal immigration try googling "bush" and "245i", "bush" and "TPS", or "treasury" and "matricula". You'll see how Bush has extended amnesty to hundreds of thousands of illegals from Central America, tried (unsuccessfully thankfully) several times to ram another mid-size amnesty, "245i" through congress, and has our Treasury Dept. endorsing the Mexican illegal alien ID card (I'd post yet more links myself but I'm wearying of educating you without pay).

[Tiger_eye]

I think Bush's poll numbers are falling because he is so wishy-washy on homosexuals and quotas. He acts like a liberal Clinton.

[Once-Ler]

I'd post yet more links myself but I'm wearying of educating you without pay

Please don't put yourself out on my account. I didn't even bother reading this one based on my impression of your earlier posts.
cuatro más años !!!

[Once-Ler]

I think Bush's poll numbers are falling because he is so wishy-washy on homosexuals and quotas. He acts like a liberal Clinton.

No. It's obviously because of the illegal immigrants see post #96

[Jorge]

Really Jorge, you have to learn more about how Washington, and the world for that matter, operate. Controversial proposals are not floated with simple Jorge-friendly declarative sentences like "I will give 3 million illegals amnesty".

How convienient for you.
There are "no declarative sentences" with which you can support any of your claims. LOL.

Just as I thought.

I'd post yet more links myself but I'm wearying of educating you without pay.

Don't then.

All you do is hand out long and boring reading assignments anyway.
Probably hoping that by the time I finish reading them maybe I'll have forgotten that you couldn't answer my challenges.

In any case I'm not going to sift through all the articles you post trying to find something that sopports your position.

If you can't articulate your position using your own resources, don't expect me to do your homework for you.