Posted on 06/13/2007 4:03:42 PM PDT by LouAvul
As President Bush attempts to revive the controversial immigration reform bill he supports, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that Republicans are abandoning the president, which has dropped his job-approval rating below 30 percent -- his lowest mark ever in the survey.
But he isn’t the only one whose support is on the decline in the poll. Congress’ approval rating has plummeted eight points, bringing it below even Bush’s. And just one in five believe the country is on the right track, which is the lowest number on this question in nearly 15 years.
Republican pollster Neil Newhouse, who conducted the survey with Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, argues that these numbers have crossed below the political “Mendoza line,” referring to the feeble .200 batting-average mark in baseball. “With the mood of the country dropping below 20, and the president’s approval below 30, both are candidates for a sort of political Mendoza line,” he says.
In the poll, Bush’s approval rating is at just 29 percent. It’s a drop of six points since April, and it represents his lowest mark ever on this question in the NBC/Journal poll.
Democratic pollster Jay Campbell, who works with Hart, attributes this decline to Republicans. Back in April, 75 percent of Republicans approved of Bush’s job performance, compared with 21 percent who disapproved. Now, only 62 percent of Republican approve, versus 32 percent who disapprove.
This drop comes as Bush tries to resuscitate the comprehensive immigration reform bill in the U.S. Senate, which has angered many Americans -- particularly conservatives -- because they believe its provisions allowing for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants amount to “amnesty.” Bush and other supporters of the legislation dispute that charge.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
And here's a small snipit of an article from "theconservativevoice" website on a Peggy Noonan piece ...
Ms. Noonan explained: "The president has taken to suggesting that opponents of his immigration bill are unpatriotic--they 'don't want to do what's right for America.' His ally Sen. Lindsey Graham [Senator McCain's idea of a 2008 vice presidential candidate?] has said, 'We're gonna tell the bigots to shut up.' On Fox last weekend he vowed to 'push back.' Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff suggested opponents would prefer illegal immigrants be killed; Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said those who oppose the bill want 'mass deportation.' Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson said those who oppose the bill are 'anti-immigrant' and suggested they suffer from 'rage' and 'national chauvinism.'"
I've heard several things thrown about regarding people who are anti-illegal immigrant. Either from Bush himself or his subordinates and/or supporters. So far I have head nothing from him to rebuke, or apologize for them.
Whether explicit in words or just clever implications, he's made his feeling known.
I don't like it.
Now you can go on and on about us suddenly taking the MSM side of things, but we aren't. Just because they happen to write something that agrees with us, doesn't mean we've fallen in love with them. We haven't.
Jorge "I'll see you at the Bill Signing" Bush on the other hand... Look I'd love to research the things that either Jorge or his administration have said on the issue that I've heard over the last year or two, but it's late and I'm tired.
Face it, Jorge has left the reservation.
“I feel really stupid for how much I used to support this guy”
————The built-in tragedy of our system is that we are always ready to rush to embrace and defend “our guy” over their guy, because their guy seems so much worse, and is unfairly attacking “our guy”. Turns out, to put it bluntly, that “our guy” was working with “their guy” to bring about the conditions for this support. And of course it works the other way round also. They’re basically all the same people posturing as they see fit. This is why nothing much ever changes, and that the processes of government at ALL levels only go to reinforce the status-quo. Look at just how much Bush is risking and will continue to risk just to prove himself, finally, “a good Democrat”. I’ll say it again, Bush is THE WORST KIND OF REPPUBLICAN/
“About the only thing I hang my hat on for self-justification these days is that Gore and/or Kerry probably would have been even worse.
But yes, I realize that that’s a thin reed to stand on. It’s sad really.”
But if they’d been president, we never even would have known how Bush turned out... So we would have been wishing for him all through those years, not knowing we were screwed either way.
But maybe its better to be screwed by an enemy than someone you thought was a friend.
The more Bush’s Iraq policy looks like it’s failing, or at best, going nowhere, in the White House’s perception of the public’s perception, the more strenuously does he push and purse the Lib/Rino version of the Immigration Bill.He perversely thinks it’s all he’s got left to buff up his “legacy”, which is going to be terrible without this
personal bailout offered by the Immigration bill. He will likely be tragically wrong on BOTH counts/
But none of that counts, right, since he overthrew Saddam, a tinpot dictator in a country most people couldn't find on a map, a guy who was no danger to the United States. Since Bush has spent $100 billion of our tax dollars overthrowing that tinpot nothing, and turning Iraq into a chaotic hellhole, all is forgiven - because that's the only priority for many conservatives. As long as Bush pursues costly, unnecessary wars in the Middle East, it doesn't matter that he governs like a Democrat at home, and is threatening to destroy our nation with unchecked illegal immigration. None of that matters because Saddam has been deposed - woopie!
You can't throw Bush out and he knows it. He has contempt toward you and other conservatives.
I have lost all respect for Bush. The picture of me shaking his hand back in 2000 has been discarded.
LOL...
Yup.
They actually have shows on TV about that. They call it ECW, or WWF, or some such. "Professional Wrestling" for those of you in Rio Linda.
It's all a game, a con, a show. They have to, back and forth the show to placate the opposing sides and the masses in general.
Your one sentence is, in a nut shell, everything that needs to be said. There was a time when Tony Snow would have recognized this catastrophe, but he seems to have gone missing. Replaced by some doppelganger, I think.
Yes, and sounding as if we expect the President and Congress to lead through polling. Let’s just require they hold up their fingers to the wind to see which direction to lead us next. I hate polls.
"If you want to kill the bill, if you don't want to do what's right for America , you can pick one little aspect out of it. You can use it to frighten people ,'' Bush said.
Unamericans who don't want to do what's right for America and scare-mongers who are just trying to frighten people.
HE'S WRONG! HE DOESN'T WANT TO DO WHAT'S RIGHT FOR AMERICA! HE'S TRYING TO SCARE PEOPLE!
What he's doing by accusing his opponents on this issue of doing the exact thing he's doing is straight out of the Bill Clinton playbook.
YOU may be a bushbot for all eternity, but if he's wrong, I'll call him on it, and he's WRONG!
Thank you, I think I will. Better than dwelling in negativity and hysteria.
I'm surprised it's that high.
I found it ludicrous...(not GREAT!) that I found myself in the position of cheering him on to ask the hard questions of Tony Snow because Tony Snow was shucking & jiving whenever his mouth opened!!
MnBelle,fwiw, I regret the "ill" or "subversive" remark....(pure speculation on my part)
However, I stand by my distress that our ...'ship of state' ...is rudderless.....and oh my, what a helpless position for our country!
George Bush created this amnesty firestorm...
..and George Bush continues to fuel it!
A house divided against itself cannot stand
I DO..
Thank GOD that he was around when we had to replace 2 Supreme Court Justices, and return fire on the terrorist after 9-11.. How quickly we forget, where this country would have been without Geo Bush, and with Gore or Kerry, or GOD forbid McNutt..
I am dismayed over our congressional morons and some of the border problems, but have some historical perspective ..
I just read this thread from begining to end and I’m now very depressed. I don’t think the Republican party has a change in 2008. And I think it’s going to be a very long time before we ever have power again
BINGO BUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, that's what all the ingrown carping and sniping will do. It's truly amazing that the Republicans do this with so much at stake. Yes, I know we pride ourselves on being so much more patriotic and caring than the Democrats, but they don't eat their own and tear themselves apart. They manage to stick together and get their folks elected, because they know the importance of holding those reins of power.
If folks want to complain that the President has done this, I'll remind you once again, that Republican voters placed him in this position by abandoning him in the elections of 2006 for whatever reasons, and he had no position of strength in order to fight off some of the more egregious aspects of this Immigration bill. And I'll remind you again that we all KNEW that he wanted Immigration reform, he even wanted that pathway to citizenship for folks who'd been here illegally for a long time (many before he was ever President) But he wanted good solid background checks and other things that the Democrats did not want. He lost the opportunity to have those included, and instead we got all these loopholes that folks are so exorcised about.
Y'all can bitch and moan all you want, but don't pretend that the illegal immigration problem was created by George W. Bush, and don't expect him to be able to solve it to your satisfaction. Actually, NO ONE at this point could solve it to the satisfaction of many because they've gotten themselves worked into such a frenzy about it. So much so, that they may even convince themselves that "it can't get any worse" and they'll stay home in 2008 "because the Republican party has left us, and we want to teach them a lesson". As a result we'll get Her Heinous or Barak. Then after 8 more years, or probably less, we'll get another 9/11 or something worse.
When x42 was President, there was attack against Americans somewhere in the world about once a year, two of which were on our soil. This was because the Islamofascists rightly perceived x42 as weak and feckless, because they'd seen him in action. Does anyone suppose that they'll look on Her Heinous or Barak any differently? I frankly don't think it is any coincidence that we haven't been attacked on our soil since then, even with our 'porous borders', and I credit President Bush with creating that atmosphere of diligence for our safety. Some are so blinded with rage and feelings of personal betrayal they don't even want to acknowledge that.
This is the false premise used by the amnesty fans.
By drying up the jobs and free services (medical, education, etc.) AND deporting illegals immediately when caught commiting crimes AND sealing borders, they would "deport" themselves. This is Romney's position and I agree with it.
I couldn’t agree with you more. I’m just very disheartned. I’ve always tried to remain as optomistic as I can. Even after the Dems took congress, I was still optomistic. I thought the Republicans were just in a slump and after people saw how lousy the Dems in cogress were, the independents (who decide every election) would slowly slide back towards the right.
Well people are seeing how bad the Democrats are, but that’s not resulting in gains for the Republicans. All it means is that the average american is disgusted and fed up with both parties. I just can’t deal with it anymore. I put my heart and soul into the last two elections only to see everything come apart at the seams. I will still go out and vote, and will vote for whoever the GOP nominates whether it’s Fred, or Rudy, or Mitt, or even McCain just because I think all of those are better then any of the Democrats. But I just don’t have the heart or motivation anymore to put the time and effort into this like I did the last 2. Because I just believe that it’s a lost cause at this point.
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