Bush's Poll Numbers

New polls by Gallup and the Pew bunch show consistent findings, that Bush's approval among the electorate is at its historically lowest point of his term in office (New York Times report here). What's worth noting is that Pew surveyed 1,800 adults, a large sampling (considerably larger than Gallup uses) which generally guarantees greater accuracy, and Pew's results show the lowest approval for El Presidente, with only 33 percent of the respondents saying they were satisfied with the way things were going in the country and 61 percent saying they were dissatisfied.

Both Gallup and Pew, moreover, now show that a majority of Americans do not think the Iraq War is worth what it's costing (presumably what it's costing not just in dollars but in psychic erosion not to mention human lives).

I checked in with my polling guru Ruy Teixeira, who hasn't yet commented on these two newest Gallup and Pew reports but who does have an analysis up of a recent CBS poll showing approval of the Iraq War dropping below 40 percent. Teixeira, who tends to get awfully carried away by Bush's negative poll numbers, says, "Could Bush's ratings on Iraq get any worse? Based on the way things are going, I would have to say that's a very strong possibility."

Yeah, but the failure of Kerry's numbers to improve as Bush's numbers sink is not only puzzling but also troubling. Bad as people are feeling about this president's doctrine of preemption currently, they may end up voting for him anyway if the Democrat doesn't offer something clearly better. So far, Kerry has managed to achieve that. Though there's still time.