President 23%

"This many people still like me"

Zogby:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Growing anxiety about their economic prospects and deep unhappiness with President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress plunged Americans into a dark mood this month, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.

[snip]

Bush's approval rating fell 4 percentage points to 23 percent, a record low for pollster John Zogby, and positive marks for the U.S. Congress fell 5 points to tie an all-time low at 11 percent.

The number of Americans who believe the country is on the right track fell from 23 percent to an abysmal 16 percent, another record for pessimism, as uncertainty about the economy and rising gas prices fuelled growing doubts about the future.

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Congress More Trusted Than Bush on Iraq

For months the Bush administration and Congressional Republicans have been telling Democrats not to micromanage the Iraq war.

Rice: Congress shouldn't micromanage war
Feb. 25, 2007

The White House said it does not want Congress to micromanage U.S. commanders in Iraq. . . .
February 27, 2007

Bush said some lawmakers see a chance "to micromanage our military commanders, force a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq and spend billions on domestic projects that have nothing to do with the war on terror."
March 17, 2007

GOP Rep. Christopher Shays said Congress shouldn't try to "micromanage" the war.
March 22, 2007

Republicans said the bill is an attempt by politicians to micromanage the war. “This bill is designed to bring failure. Failure in Iraq means chaos in Iraq,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).
May 10, 2007

But a new poll shows that most Americans would rather have Congress manage the Iraq war than Bush.

Most Americans see President George W. Bush as too inflexible on the war in Iraq and prefer that the Democratic-run Congress have the final word on when to withdraw U.S. forces, a Washington Post/ABC News poll showed on Monday.

Nearly 80 percent of those polled said Bush is not willing enough to change policies over the unpopular war that has taken a huge toll on his approval ratings, the Post reported.

The poll was conducted last week, after Senate Democrats failed to advance a plan that would force Bush to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq by April 2008.

More than six in 10 Americans -- 62 percent -- said Congress should have the final say on when to pull out U.S. forces, compared with 31 percent who said the decision should rest with Bush, the poll showed.

A narrow majority, 55 percent, said they supported the proposed pullout plan, which the Senate may not consider again until after its August recess.

The percentage of Americans seeing Bush as too rigid on Iraq has climbed 12 percentage points since December, the Post said.

[snip]

But on the issue of Iraq, the Post/ABC poll showed that the public stands with Congress.

Fifty-five percent said they trusted congressional Democrats on the war, compared with 32 percent who said they trusted Bush, the Post said.

The poll of 1,125 adults was conducted on July 18-21 and had a three-point margin of error.

Polls taken during July show President Bush's approval ratings ranging from 26 percent (Newsweek, July 2-3) to 33 percent (AP-Ipsos, July 9-11; ABC/Washington Post, July 18-21).

However, approval ratings for Congress remain just as low, ranging from 24 percent (AP=Ipsos, July 9-11) to 37 percent (ABC/Washington Post, July 18-21).

Yet Americans say Democrats are doing a better job in Congress than Republicans. (ABC/Washington Post, July 18-21, 46 percent approve the way Democrats in Congress are doing their job; 34 percent approve the way Republicans in Congress are doing their job).

House and Senate Democrats need to take these numbers to heart and continue to push for a change in Iraq that includes a plan to pull troops out. Such efforts need to be accompanied by prompt responses to Republican smear attacks, as Corpus Juris has noted. After more than six years it should be clear to everyone that calm, civil discourse is not part of the Republican play book.

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Americans prefer Democratic president

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll:

By 52% to 31%, Americans say they want Democrats to win the presidency next year.

Americans give the Republican Party their most negative assessment in the two-decade history of the Journal/NBC survey, and by 49% to 36% they say the Democratic Party more closely shares their values and positions on the issues.

"The political environment for Republicans continues to erode," says Republican pollster Neil Newhouse, who conducts the Journal/NBC survey with Democratic counterpart Peter Hart. A long-term worry for the party: Republican gains among the Hispanic constituency, long a target for President Bush, have vanished at a time when Washington is enmeshed in a debate over immigration policy.

The party's woes can be partly traced to the political decline of President Bush. His approval rating in the Journal/NBC survey has fallen to its lowest ever, 29%, while 66% of Americans disapprove of his performance. The telephone survey of 1,008 adults, conducted June 8-11, has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

Mr. Bush's decline from 35% approval in April reflects diminished support from his core constituency: Among Republicans, approval of the president's job performance has dropped to 62% from 75%. It also reflects bleak assessments of his new strategy in Iraq: By 54% to 10%, Americans say the situation there has gotten worse rather than better in recent months.

The poll hardly brings reassurance for the Democrats, who control both the House and Senate. Amid political gridlock on domestic issues and inconclusive debates over Iraq, the approval rating for Congress stands lower than Mr. Bush's, at 23%.

What the survey doesn't say is that the low approval rating of congressional Dems has been driven down most likely by the anti-war left angry over passage of the Iraq War supplemental without a troop withdrawal timetable. That could change in the upcoming battle to pass amendments setting deadlines in the defense appropriations bill.

Just 41% of Americans say their representative in Congress deserves re-election, comparable to levels before Democrats swept Republicans out of power in November.

Yet the Democrats' overall strategic posture as 2008 approaches remains far stronger. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, who has strengthened her lead in the race for the Democratic nomination, leads Mr. Giuliani by 48% to 43% in a potential general-election matchup after trailing by a similar margin three months ago. Despite Mr. Thompson's rise among Republican contenders, he trails the second-place Democratic candidate, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, by 50% to 31% in a hypothetical November 2008 contest.

Far too early in the race to feel overly optimistic but Bush continues to weigh down the Repub presidential candidates. Too many of them sound like the Commander guy. And that's not what Americans want.

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Why we will always have the 30 percenters

Today on The View, certainly not the central point on debate about the war, Rosie and Elizabeth Hasselback got into it over whether or not Rosie was calling our troops terrorists. Let's just say it was a truly inane conversation that didn't serve a purpose except ratings.

As with all things, the real story comes from the audience of commenters and the first one was a doozy:

Why do Rosie, as well as some seemingly otherwise intelligent people seem to constantly forget who attacked who first? Why does their brain work backwards when it is clear that Hussein was in with bin Ladin as sure as there is sand in Iraq? Sorry, but Rosie is a publicity grabbing pig, which has absolutely nothing to do with her sexual preference.

Now, of course, we know this is not true, has never been true and, regardless of today's headlines, it will never be true - not even if it refers to al Qaeda's presence we were responsible for creating years after our ridiculous invasion into Iraq.

So, let's look at it. According to Rasmussen, a most favored Republican poll, Bush is having one of those bad months. The 19 percenters have even become the 15-16 percenters. But, no matter what, there is a steady portion of our population that is going to believe EVERYTHING Bush says and 30 percent-ish are going to believe MOST of it.

Check it out. All most any poll, within margin of error, will bear this out.

cross-posted at www.TheUnseenDemocrat.com

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Only 25% Of Americans Think Nation Is Headed In the Right Direction.

An unnecessary war that won't end. Gas prices at $3.30. Food prices up. Health care costs have gone through the roof. The electric company just wrote a letter telling my wife and me that electric rates are going up. More and more people are worried about their jobs. Incomes are flat. Education expenses soaring. A department of justice poorly led by a serial liar who thinks that torturing prisoners is morally defensible, and that spying on Americans without warrant is Constitutional. A President who doesn't seem competent to organize a two car parade, yet is somehow able to bully the Congress at will. Oh, did I mention the optional war that has turned into a death trap for thousands and a money pit that will take generations to pay off. We still haven't caught Osama Bin Ladin.

Is it any wonder that according to a recent AP-Ipsos poll

Only 25 percent of those surveyed say things in the U.S. are going in the right direction, according to an AP-Ipsos poll this month. That is about the lowest level of satisfaction detected since the survey started in December 2003. . . .

Asked in April why they felt things were veering in the wrong direction, one-third overall volunteered the war and one-fourth blamed poor leadership.

Nine percent faulted the economy, 8 percent a loss of moral values and 5 percent gasoline prices.

"We need to get out of war, get our economy back up, quit spending money outside of America and bring it here," said Democrat Lisa Pollard, 45, an insurance company analyst in Arlington, Texas.

And the poll was taken in April, before gas prices soared like a John Ashcroft eagle. The poll found similar numbers across all demographic groups with white males slightly more optimistic than minorities and women.

Only 25% think America is headed in the right direction. Why don't we pull over and look at a map?

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