Poll: Bush approval hits new low

USA TODAY ^ | Posted 2/2/2004 5:42 PM | Susan Page and Richard Benedetto, and Associated Press writers Patricia L. Garcia and Susan Montoya

[Federalist 78]

President Bush's approval among Americans has sunk to a new low, and Sen. John Kerry would likely win the presidential election if it were held today, according to a new USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll.

In addition, support for going to war with Iraq also dipped below 50% for the first time, to 49%. The proportion of Americans who were certain that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to develop them before the war fell dramatically. More than four in 10 Americans, 43%, said the Bush administration deliberately misled the public about whether Iraq had outlawed weapons.

[dwilli]

I worked and waited all of my life for my party to take the reins of the Federal Government.

It finally came to pass. I am depressedly angry on how lousy a job GWB and the Republicans have done on domestic matters.

I ain't too happy with the conditions overseas, seems to have reached status quo.

[Right_in_Virginia]

I will not vote against GWB. Under current conditions, neither will I vote for GWB

If the DemonRats retake the WH, I'm sure we can count on you whining for the next four years about gun control; judges; taxes; the UN; abortion; the stock market...etc.

[dwilli]

No, after watching this crowd operate, Divided government
is the answer. Keep em at one another's throat.

[COEXERJ145]

I will not vote against GWB. Under current conditions, neither will I vote for GWB

That has to be one of the most oxymoronic statements I've ever heard.

[solo gringo]

I have been with Bush from day one as governor and as president and i will stay with him.All of you that like to bash our president do it privatly.I am not telling you how to vote or who to vote for but think of what we might face.
The communist party has said we will not carry our own banner this year we will let the democrats carry it for us.We will support any democrat that get the nod because we hate bush and want him gone.Well let me tell you and anyone that has been connected with a government that is communist better think about who you elect to run this country.

[small voice in the wilderness]

You're right. Why fire until we see the red of Ted Kennedy's eyes??

Conservatives sometimes seem bi-polar. We are either HIGH on our man, or so LOW even dems. step over us. How about we just maintain a constant blood pressure and let President Bush handle this race? I'm certain he knows LOTS of things we don't. Serenity now!.

[Steve Eisenberg]

Meanwhile President Bush is driving many of his base to feel uncomfortable voting for him. They may stay home, while those in the middle will do the "comfortable" thing and vote for that nice young man Clinton Kerry. It looks more and more like the circumstances that beat his father.

Bill Clinton was an OUTSTANDING campaigner. And it was hard to convince people that a Southern governor in favor of welfare reform was a dangerous leftist. Let's hope for Kerry, but as a senator with a liberal voting record, even Edwards is far more vulnerable to opposition research than was Clinton. So, no, this does not look like 1992.

Elections are decided by swing voters. It's that simple. The only way a conviction politician like Reagan wins is by convincing swing voters he is just a regular likeable moderate, but this is beyond all but a very few masters. To win, Bush has to convince people that he is not the right winger they say he is.

[evaporation-plus]

No, after watching this crowd operate, Divided government is the answer. Keep em at one another's throat.

E X A C T L Y...... none of them are on OUR side......

[deport]

Just damn......

Looks like Kerry is the next President to be inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2005..... Who'd a thunk it?

[dwilli]

Learned a new word?

[deport]

They're pissed with his runaway spending.

---

You mean they think Kerry will do much better? Yep that I understand...

[Rik0Shay]

He Just stated the facts.

[Jorge]

This only reflects the high visability that the dems have had on tv and in print 24/7 during the primaries.

Exactly.

[Rik0Shay]

Ditto

[Miles Vorkosigan]

Right. It worked so well during the Chinese Occupation Government (1993-2001). We got that masterpiece of government restraint, the Lautenberg amendment. Yes, those Clinton years were such golden days of freedom, what with the secret gun registration files kept by the ATF, the defeat of the GOP attempt to cut the government, the auditing of anyone who dared criticize the Chines Occupation Government, the private detectives, the FBI files. Why can't we just go back to those lovely times?

[Ben Ficklin]

"Bush is alienaing his conservative base."

In the 2000 election, there was not enough of a consevative base to elect Bush. It took the democrats in WV and Nader splitting the dem vote in FL. Also don't forget that McCain ran to the left of Bush in the primary and quite well.

Now tell me again about that big bad-ass consevative base.

[CedarDave]

Why expend ammo when you don't have the target in sight. Bide your time.

When the boat is taking on water, waiting too long to begin bailing it out greatly increases the likelihood that it will sink no matter how much effort you put into saving it later.

[dwilli]

Do you think the Republicans in Congress would let
any non-Republican spend more?

[Steve Eisenberg]

Looks like Kerry is the next President to be inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2005..... Who'd a thunk it?

Only the majority of voters who don't know about the thrown away medals and the charges that, in Vietnam, we (he?) were rapists who killed civilians for sport. The Bush campaign will have to be careful with this material, but I'm afraid that careful negative campaigning works, and this is a guy with a lot of negatives. How will his no-death-penalty-for-terrorists vote play? There are a lot of swing voters who will swing until they find out Kerry is an out of touch elitist. This discovery will take time, and it may be lost and then rediscovered, but it will sink in.

[nicmarlo]

Interesting.....for GW, for this question (8) (Please say if you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of these people in the news, or if you have never heard of them), the poll doesn't classify who's voting by party, as they do for all the other Rats. For Bush, the just say † Based on registered voters. . But for Kerry, et al., they show this:

National Adults . . .
Republican/Republican Leaners . . .
Democrats/Democratic Leaners

hmmmmmmmm, gee, I just wonder why that is? (And that's only one question I have about this poll; there's others, like, of how many Republicans did they ask questions? Most questions seemed to be asked of Democrats...if you look closely, you'll see for yourself, for example: "Based on 415 Democratic or Democratic leaners who are registered to vote."

This appears to be, IMHO, generally speaking, a poll on what Democrats think of President Bush.