Via Daily Kos, I was drawn to a brief commentary by Rich Lowry on the Corner on National Review Online.
The president’s job approval ratings aren’t looking so great lately: 36%, ARG; 40% Harris; 45% Rasmussen. I’m prepared to believe that all these polls are flawed for some reason or other, but it’s clear that he’s sagging.
Yeah… and I’m prepared to believe that the Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe.
Man… I hope all Republicans are in such a stunning state of denial, that they can’t see the forest for the colon polyps inches away from their eyeballs. If R’s are blaming their “sagging” poll numbers on the pollsters (all the pollsters) rather than their own disastrous policies, their dismal performance in office is destined to be duplicated at next year’s mid-term elections.
Lowry suggests much of Bush’s problems stem from the deteriorating war in Iraq (duh-uh), and on that front the polls are only getting worse. A new AP-Ipsos poll released today shows approval of Bush’s handling of the war at 37% (down from 41% in June,) while 58% disapprove. And these are no wishy-washy, blowing-in-the-wind type numbers. Only 20% of respondents “strongly approve” (plummeting from 26% in June), while a steady 45% “strongly disapprove.” Perhaps even more telling… 87% approve of public dissent against the war. (You know… like what that traitor Cindy Sheehan is doing down in Crawford, TX.)
Bush’s approval ratings are “sagging” lower than his mamma’s eighty-year-old tits, and Lowry’s solution? Come out in favor of something popular… like cracking down on immigration. Yup… what better way to drum up support for our war against brown people overseas, than to rile up fear and distrust of brown people back at home?
To Lowry, “this seems an obvious play”, but he doesn’t think Bush will do it, because Bush is a leader, and “leadership is about ignoring polls, doing hard things, etc.”
You have to give Bush credit–he’s the absolute opposite of Clinton. Clinton was in favor of small, popular things. Bush apparently likes to be in favor of big, unpopular things.
Um… and that’s a good thing?
As Armando astutely observes on Daily Kos:
“For the life of me, why these Republicans would want to compare Bush to Clinton escapes me. But they do.”
They certainly do.
UPDATE:
Whoops… looks like the Gallup Poll is flawed too: 40% job approval. This is Bush’s lowest rating ever, and the worst of any of the last seven presidents at this point in the second term, with the exception of Nixon during Watergate. Most troubling for Republicans, only one-third of independents approve of Bush’s performance. There goes the swing vote.