Friday, May 20, 2005

Bush's Lead-Balloon Approval Ratings

I know he's supposed to be such a down-home, popular guy, but it's amazing how few Americans actually believe President Bush is doing a very good job.

Ever since his peak popularity in the weeks following the attacks of September 11 – a period during which Pee Wee Herman would have had a 90 percent presidential approval rating – Bush's numbers have continued to fall faster than Bill Frist can say “up or down vote.”

Here's a summary of how Bush's approval ratings have looked in major polls conducted over the last 40 days:
  • NBC News/Wall Street Journal: 47 Percent
  • Pew Research Center: 43 Percent
  • Time Magazine: 46 Percent
  • CNN/USA Today/Gallup: 48 Percent
  • Associated Press/Ipsos: 47 Percent
  • FOX News/Opinion Dynamics: 47 Percent
  • ABC News/Washington Post: 47 Percent
  • Zogby International: 46 Percent
  • CBS News: 44 Percent
  • Harris: 44 Percent
This gives him an average approval rating of 45.9 percent for these 10 polls. Good grief, even Fox News couldn't make their results look better.

Among political operatives, an approval rating of over 70 percent is cause for celebration, 60 to 70 percent means you're doing OK and 50 to 60 percent means your stock is falling with the American people.

Less than 50 percent means that Americans generally wish you were doing something else for a living.

Yeah, this guy's got some mandate, doesn't he?