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.

[republicanwizard]

Nonsense!

[republicanwizard]

Please note that 18% of voters believe that Bush is "too liberal."

That means if Bush moves to the right, he will pick up 18% of the vote. That would translate to a 12 point victory.

[Mo1]

When he gets his campaign rolling, he'll flatten Botox Johnny.

Yep and I will enjoy every minute if it

[WOSG]

I just don't buy the swing in voters in a three week period. "

I do.

We've had the Dems trash-mouth Bush as a liar for months. Then David Kay says "we were wrong" and the wholse discussion is over what we were wrong about in the runup to war. Operation Iraqi Freedom was right. It was the absolutely right thing to do to liberate Iraq. But the American people are not hearing that, they are being spoonfed stuff about 'no WMDs'.

Ad that to Bush's mistake in pushing immigration visas, and you've got trouble.

The danger is that certain points of view are gelling.
40% against the war is not good. IMHO 80% of Americans shuld support the removal of an evil tyrant who supported terrorists - there is not a good reason to be against this war... which grave offense was made in removing him?
Who really thinks US and Iraq would be better and safer with Saddam in power?

[Mo1]

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

And they have everyone but Dean beating Bush???

If you ask me .. this poll smells

[nicmarlo]

to high heaven, IMHO.

[Mo1]

And laughable ..

[WOSG]

"I will vote happily for President Bush. I live in Massachusetts"

God Bless you NutCrackerBoy!!! That's behind enemy lines. :-)
I used to live in Bedford long time back.

"My two biggest issues: War on Terror, and the appointment of constitutionalist judges."

Good ones!! let me add:
3. Lower tax rates and less taxes. Kerry got an "F" lifetime rating from the National Taxpayers Union - he's a tax-n-spend liberal.
4. Lawsuit Reform.
5. American Sovereignty: Standing up to Kyoto, UN, ICC, and the other one-world-socialist organizations that Kerry would rush headlong to embrace.
6. Immigration: While things are bad now, the Democrats are far far worse, and much progress in administratively 'fixing' what the Clinton administration broke will be reversed. Also, IMHO a GOP Congress will not pass a bad bill *if* we get a solid majority.
7. DEFUND THE LEFT. Kerry means restarting the funding of the left on a much larger scale than Bush is letting happen.
8. Energy/environmental sanity, not the extremist liberal interest groups priorities (ie the nutty policies that led to massive forest fires, and stop us from drilling for $300 billion in oil in frozen tundra etc)

Lots of reasons to prefer Bush over Kerry.

[GailA]

With 24/7 news coverage of Dubya bashing by the RAT canidates, with NO POSITIVE stories on Dubya by said media, it's a wonder he isn't polling in the teens.

It's about time to write FNC about their 'fair and balanced' coverage to include some positive things Dubya is doing.

I did it this morning.

[GailA]

If Dubya loses, it could also sweep GOP out of both Houses, thus returning control of the WH AND CONGRESS to the RATS!

[hedgie]

I can't wait till President Kerry signs the executive order that effectively shuts down concealed carry. Who are you going to run to then?

The Courts?

When it comes to the 2nd amendment, they "don't want to get involved."

Do you know what the people in Mass. who voted for Kerry think of gun owners?

They think you're a dangerous psycho who needs to be disarmed.

And they're just itching to get their hands on the controls.

I'm going to do you, me and all the rest of the firearms owners in this country a favor and vote for George W. Bush

PS: I'm a New York City boy, but I qualified for CCW in Tennessee, so I know what I'm talking about, from both sides

[MissAmericanPie]

It's the borders stupid.

[GailA]

From today's Media Research Center

“In 1995, Senator Kerry voted to freeze defense spending for seven years, cutting over $34 billion from the defense budget.”

Douglass: “True, but Kerry argues he was trying to eliminate wasteful spending to shift some money to education

Kerry helped block oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge. He cast a crucial vote for Bill Clinton’s $243 billion tax increase. Kerry says it helped wipe out the deficit in the 1990s.

“John Kerry leads the pack of Democratic Presidential candidates in the military/veterans policy category. The Senator's pledge to support veterans' health programs carries a cost of over $41 billion. The bulk of Kerry's spending, however, comes in the form of a $55.9 billion education agenda, an $89.88 billion health care platform, and $31.04 billion in infrastructure improvements.

“Included in Kerry's education plan -- the second priciest of the Democratic proposals -- is a $2.25 billion offer of more affordable child care, an expanded Head Start program, and $25 billion in school renovations. The Kerry health care plan allows Americans to buy into the same arrangement offered to Members of Congress -- at a taxpayer cost of $89.5 billion per year. Senator Kerry's infrastructure program entails $31 billion in restored highway funding and $35 million in funding for a high-speed rail programs.”

[ohioWfan]

If you ask me .. this poll smells

It surely stinketh.

I ain't worried..........you worried, MO?

[GRRRRR]

Well I guess it's all over then, cuz "THEY" say so...let's just pack it in and all move to Gondwanaland or Fiji or sumpthin' like that...

The DemoDolts have no clue what GW, the Texas Tornado, will unleash on them this summer...

We got a full tank of gas, a pack of smokes and we're on a mission from God..let's roll.

[Joe Hadenuf]

His numbers could hit the stratosphere again if we get Osama's head on a pike in, say, May.

I wouldn't count on it. Look at Saddam. Two days after he crawled out of his hole, it was no longer front page news, and quickly faded away.

After watching Afghanistan and Iraq get hammered, and watching Saddam crawl out of a hole, basically harmless, American's for the most part are beyond the WOT. They still support the troops but they are more concerned with their jobs, epic government spending, the never ending invasion of millions of illegals into our country, the AWB, etc, etc. You know, domestic issues.

[gatorgriz]

I've posted the RNC at least 10 times in the last month warning them this would happen... I even went so far as to tell them I'd withhold my usual election year contributions (which I will); if they don't come to their senses... Haven't heard a word, not a single word...

If those numb nuts think they have a chance without a base they are simply out of their minds... They're losing the whole shooting match NOW!!!

If the RNC doesn't come to its collective senses, and soon; its all over...

AM I PISSED OFF? YOU BETCHA!!!

[WOSG]

You are correct.

Voters focus on 3 points: Character, Competence, and Conviction.

Whatever Kerry's faults, and they are many, most voters will not know enough to distinguish fact from fiction in his storied past. So character attacks dont really work. what does work is if a scandal erupts - a la Gary hart /Donna Rice, or some ethical problem a la Bob Torricelli - but no campaign can 'construct' that. We dont see that here. Kerry is a sincere enough man, and though corrupted with lobby money like many in Washington, charges on ethics *from a campaign* will not stick (they need the media to stay on it or Federal indictments to prove its a real issue).

So drop that idea. Competence? We see competence in campaigns. When John F(*&*( up, he fell in the polls; when Dean screamed, he fell. Again, a campaign to declare "I'm competent, he's not" is tough sell unless there was some real disaster that happened. Kerry btw is trying this on Iraq. IMHO it is phony and I hope it fails miserably, but for now we see the moral equivalent of a Tet offensive being waged by Al Qaeda. For all we know it is tearing the guts out of Al Qaeda but if they blow up enough people that it makes Americans doubt Bush and go with the 'lesser resolve' Kerry, the terrorists have won. In other words, the terrorists will do their darndest to help Kerry win, and Kerry will use those killed by the terrorists as "proof" Bush's policies are not working.

Bush can deflect that by focussing his energy and building the terrain in such a way that terror attacks increase his support. In the end, though, neither Kerry nor Bush can fully use "competence" as a campaign issue - events will drive judgements of voters on this.

Kerry's main character flaw is his attempt to have it both ways - in particular using his 4 months in Vietnam as a prop for anti-military and weak-defense-of-american-interests policies and statements. He's done much to DAMAGE american interests over the years, against weapons systems, good intelligence and against america setting its own foreign policy course. He doesnt want that, he wants the UN permission slip. He cant advocate those policies then turn to veterans and say "I am one of you". Nah, he's one of the socialist-one-worlder types, not a typical american patriot.

NOW I ASK PEOPLE: Is it better to raise this point in the context of Kerry's character, or in the context of Kerry's *positions*?

Clearly the latter, because if you dispute his wacky positions, people draw their own conclusions. If you focus on his character, it goes back to his biography, which give him an openning to describe things from *his* perspective. Which brings you full circle to him explaining himself 'as a Vietnam vet' etc....

"Focusing on Dukakis's extreme leftist record won the 1988 election won the election for GHW Bush.If you want to avoid a Kerry presidency, let the people know what he really stands for. "

Correct!

And frankly, Kerry is no Dukakis - HE IS WORSE!!!
I dont think Dukakis was as Liberal as Kerry (violently pro-abortion, filibustered moderate judges, pro-gay-marriage, pro-tax-increases, slave to the UN, pro-illegal-immigration-amesty, etc.) The issues that show Kerry is a Kennedy-clone liberal are out there for the taking. Let's see who well they are used.

[Zack Nguyen]

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

I agree, and I don't look at the Bush White House through rose-colored glasses. Bush would win big time, if the election were held today. People have seen Kerry on all the shows lately, and that is all that this poll reflects.

[WOSG]

Polls at this juncture merely track the general public's perception of the economy/job growth"

True, but it is disturbing to see low ratings on economy *after* the economy turned in 8% growth in Q3 and 4% growth in Q4.

Bush's tax cuts worked! People need to see this, know this and feel this.

Bush needs some major "flag-waving" campaign like "morning in America" as Reagan did in 1984. Project Bush's compassion, commitment to fighting evil, and the fact that he brought the country together through a difficult time and brought it around to triumph against the terrorists.