Posted on 12/07/2001 10:21:52 AM PST by Jean S
Can President Convert High Job Aprroval Into Republican Gains?
Bush's Job Approval Soars Among Blacks
By John Gizzi
The Week of December 10, 2001
In a Los Angeles Times poll of 1,995 American adults conducted November 10-13, 86% said they approved of how President Bush was doing his job. That, said the paper, was "the highest job approval rating ever recorded in a Times Poll."
Among Republicans, the President’s job approval was 97%, a figure that the Times said "is approaching what legislators call unanimous consent."
But the most interesting element of the Times Poll was the support it showed Bush now enjoying among African-Americans. Only a year ago, Bush won a mere 8% of the black vote. Today, according to the poll, 68% of blacks approve of the way Bush is doing his job, while only 24% disapprove.
Obviously, the unification of the country after September 11 has something to do with Bush’s new approval among blacks, and, to be sure, blacks approve of how Bush is doing his job generally more than they approve of how he is handling specific policy questions.
The poll said blacks support Bush’s conduct of the war 59% to 30% and his handling of the anthrax scare 56% to 31%. But they disapprove his handling of the economy 50% to 32%.
Will Bush be able to convert his high current approval among blacks into more black support for Republicans in 2002 and 2004?
"I wouldn’t bet the rent money on it," Dr. Walter Williams told Human Events. Reached at his office at George Mason University, the noted conservative author and educator said the historic Democratic voting pattern of black Americans was too much of an obstacle for a conservative Republican President to overcome, even as a wartime commander-in-chief.
"Look at the results in New Jersey," said Williams, noting that losing Republican gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler had "a fairly decent program with a lot to offer blacks in his agenda. And yet he did not do noticeably better with black voters than Republicans normally do." Williams said that while Bush should "acknowledge" the present high marks he is receiving from blacks, "he should not make any effort" to attempt to cultivate them at the polling booth.
Roy Innis, national chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality, disagrees. "Because it has believed blacks to be the wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party, the Republican Party tends to be afraid to reach out," Innis told Human Events, adding that the present wartime backing for the Republican President now places Bush in "an ideal position to reach out and explain to the black community what he stands for."
Innis—who broke ranks politically with most of his fellow civil rights leaders by backing Republicans such as Richard Nixon, New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, and 1969 New York mayoral candidate John Marchi—blamed the disapproval of Bush’s economic agenda among blacks on "propaganda." "For a very long time," said Innis, "the Democrats have been successfully spinning that tax cuts will somehow be bad for the poor and that is why Bush took the shellacking he did at the polls among black voters last November. In the case of a war, not much ‘spinning’ can be done."
Innis believes that "the President should now go out and explain just how tax cuts will help all Americans. It’s sad, but so many years of the spinning by Democrats has convinced black people that getting rid of or even cutting the capital gains tax will somehow take money out of their pockets. President Bush should explain why cutting capital gains will mean more jobs and more pay for all Americans. He can talk about affirmative action, and he needs to explain how affirmative action and race-based preferences are demeaning and insulting to the black community."
The veteran civil rights leader went on to urge the Bush White House to take the present opportunity to "build a team of black conservatives—people such as Alan Keyes—and let them counter the team of [black leaders] that [Gore campaign manager] Donna Brazile put together to confuse black voters."
There are "quite a number of influential black leaders, many in professional sports or the entertainment area, who are very sympathetic with the Bush program but afraid to say so publicly because of political correctness," said Innis. Part of the President’s job, he believes, "is to help get some of them out of the closet and show courage by publicly supporting him."
Believe me, I'll happily eat my hat if Bush gets more than 15%. If Condi Rice is the Veep-candidate I'll be very interested to see how the media portrays her.
I don't understand how she's going to do that. Bush is replacing a WHITE woman with a BLACK man.
Here’s a nearly six year old Blast from the Past — repeat, this is from Dec 2001!
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