34% February 28, 2006 zuzu According to the latest CBS News poll. At least he hasn’t hit Nixonian depths of popularity.
I’m not sure if that makes me happy or sad. He’ll be around until 2008 regardless – I don’t think he’ll do anything stupid enough before that point to jeopardize that. I mean, a lot of us realized what a horrible president he’d make BEFORE he was elected. Now, more people realize that he IS a horrible president, but that won’t get him out of office. Sigh.
My despair is as deep as Sara’s – 35% is low, but are the Democrats convincing anyone that they can do better?
are the Democrats convincing anyone that they can do better? No. Which is why liberals should listen to Alsis and form a real left party.
Here’s the breakdown of respondants’ political affiliation: Total Republicans: 272 (weighted up to 289) Total Democrats: 409 (weighted down to 381) Total Independents: 337 (weighted up to 348) On the one hand I applaud CBS for publishing this information with thier polling data (Rasmussen, take note), but I wonder why they would intentionally frame the results of a poll so obviously overweighted toward one side as accurately reflecting the views of the greater populace.
Wrong. The poll also shows that the public prefers the direction Democrats in Congress would take the country as opposed to the path set by the president, that Americans trust Democrats over Republicans to address the country’s biggest problems and that they strongly favor Democrats over Republicans in their vote for the House. And that’s from last month, before the ports debacle.
Yeah. The problem is that “Americans” don’t vote. Voters vote. And the voters – as opposed to the disproportionately-Democratic non voters that CBS likes to pick for its “headline” polls – are picking Republicans. You guys are going to lose anyway, you might as well start being true to your convictions instead of pretending to be centrists and hating life. Or you can pretend that a poll that includes a whole 28% of Republicans and 72% non-Republicans is really telling you something.
Zuzu, the ports issue hurts who? The President. And it helps who? Both Republicans and Democrats who favor tightening security and border controls. Who’s running for office in 2006 and 2008? (Hint: not the President.) Best case for you, port security is a wash. Worst case, it turns into a circular firing squad for you guys. Again.
Zuzu, the ports issue hurts who? The President. And it helps who? Both Republicans and Democrats who favor tightening security and border controls. Who’s running for office in 2006 and 2008? (Hint: not the President.) You forget that he’s in office for three more years. How much of a lame duck he is depends on his popularity and his credibility on issues like national security. If he remains unpopular, he’ll be deserted by more and more members of Congress and he won’t be able to get through a lot of things he wants to. As for the CBS poll’s alleged imbalance of Democrats, that’s been addressed: Update: Mystery Pollster has looked at the CBS poll results with a different weighting model: Some will no doubt seize on the fact that the latest CBS News sample is a few points more Democratic on party ID (37%) than on their last three surveys (34% in late January, 33% in early January and 32% in December), although the Republican percentage (28%) is about the same as the last three surveys (27%, 29% and 28% respectively). However, the difference in the party results does not explain the drop in the Bush job rating, which occurs across all three categories. In fact, even when MP recalculates the CBS job approval results for the most recent survey using the average party composition reported on their last three surveys (33% Democrat, 28% Republican, 39% independent or other), the Bush approval percentage still rounds to 34%. The reason is that my recalculation just increases the number of independents at the expense of Democrats. However, Bush’s rating is now so low among both subgroups as measured by CBS that the adjustment makes little difference.
Even though Dubya is a lame duck the 2006 and 2008 Repubs will have to run on his record or distance themselves from it. It would appear that the Chimperor isn’t even listening to Rove anymore. He should have seen letting the UAE run the ports would be a PR fiasco.
It sounds like civil war is imminent in Iraq. If this turns into a worst-case scenario–which it looks like it might–it’ll be interesting to see which way Bush’s numbers ride with our troops caught in the middle of that bullshit.
Robert, dissatisfaction with the President usually manifests itself as dissatisfaction with his party. Also, the huge advantage to Republicans in 2002 and 2004 was security, and the best-known Republican in the country is pissing that away. Finally, in a two-party system, those of us with sense have no intention of exiting the Democratic Party and letting the forces of evil win every time. That’s not what conservatives did when Rockefeller/Chaffee/Javits liberals ran their party. Instead, we need to take over the party and throw the DLC’s pathological compromisers overboard. See, e.g. Ned Lamont’s primary challenge to Lieberman. Also, since you’re rooting for the bad guys, don’t expect that anyone on our side takes any of your “advice” about what we “should” do seriously. Actually telling us what you think would help us is contrary to your self-interest, even if we believed you possessed the wisdom to know what’s in our best interest. Which I, for one, don’t.
I have been praying that the Bush’s love affair with the UAE would finally come to light and blow up in their/his face. It has, but I don’t know that the American public has had enough information to see the port give away for the cronyism it truly is. What scares me is that he has three more years to make more of a mess than he already has. I am sure Rove and company are scrambling for some sham to save them. I cringe to think of what they’ll cook up next. I am not convinced that the public is quite sobered up from the drug of myopia and dillusion induced by three decades of Republican and New Democrat rule.
don’t expect that anyone on our side takes any of your “advice” about what we “should” do seriously….Actually telling us what you think would help us is contrary to your self-interest… And since you don’t listen to me, I give you my best possible advice, thus ensuring that it will not be used, and that the sound strategy will become tainted in your councils.
Robert’s the old drunk on the end of the bar, slurring advice no one will take. I’m not old! I’m only…oh. OK, I’m old. But I’m not drunk! Yet.