US does not approve of Bush

Bush supporters in the US are extremely vocal, and the ones I know (in person and from online discussion sites like this one) are unwavering in their support of Bush. They also make the claim that he is leading the country by representing the conservative majority of its citizens.

Why, then, has his popular approval rating exhibited a monotonic decline since 9/11?

For evidence of this decline, see:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/10/bush.poll.ap/
and
http://www.hist.umn.edu/~ruggles/Approval.htm

It does not appear to me that many Americans support Bush.

Reagan, Clinton, Bush W. all had very low rates of approval before they were re-elected.

Senior Bush had high approval rates.

Interesting eh?

*Bush supporter*

Originally posted by Vauge:
Reagan, Clinton, Bush W. all had very low rates of approval before they were re-elected.

Senior Bush had high approval rates.

Interesting eh?

*Bush supporter*

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If you happened to go jogging with the President, would it be safe to say you are a "Bush athletic-supporter"?

I don't know what that means, although I doubt Bush needs much in the way of athletic supporters...

I can't post the plot from the Univ Minnesota site, because it is too large (and Dell has pre-loaded my PC with useless image editing tools that insist on making my life miserable).

The plot shows results from multiple polling entities over time. Bush had a 90% popularity on 9-11. What other president had a 90% popularity rating? What other president could have completely squandered it in a few years? Bush is now below 40%, and the history shows a steady decline throughout his term.

Bush says he doesn't listen to polls to make policy decisions. Fine. But, this is not a spike in the polls due to terrorism, Katrina, or the latest war news. It is not polling about someone's feeding tube or abortion stance. It is the aggregate response of the nation on how Bush is representing America. Clearly, he does not.

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=430

Closest one I could find, but it is not the same as the gallop poll I have seen before. All the Prez were in Oct before election. Quite startling actually. Not paying to see a poll there.

If anything, the chart above proves that every President doesn't represent America. We are definatly not split 50-50. Bush came back down to the norm, actually a bit lower than the norm. Your right.

He has a few more years, he will get back up there to the ~50 range again.

I don't think he is qualified to be President. He keeps appointing people to run organizations like FEMA that have no experience in the job he gives them. This can't possible be good for this country.

Like Bush's past, his presidency has been full of failures, lies, and dishonesty. Well, at least he gives failing college students hope that even idiots like him can prosper..

Enough supported him in November 2004 to re-elect him -- 3 years AFTER 9-11-01. Hmmmmm.......

you know some people in the backwoods still think the earth is flat. :lol: :doh

I bet there are alot of Republicans that don't approve too! Oh well at least he can't get relected again!

What's your excuse?

• The right wingers always say the Democrats have no ideas, but the Republicans have not really changed their party platform since the 30s. The difference right now is that the Republicans are a lot better at politics than the Democrats.

• Clinton enjoyed the highest approval ratings of any president since FDR. Bush now has approval ratings around what Nixon’s were during Watergate. I can’t seem to think of a single measure of the kind of job you are doing as president other than whether the people approve of the kind of job you are doing as president. At times, nearly 8 in 10 people approved of the kind of job Clinton was doing, yet now, only a little more than 3 in 10 people approve of the kind of job Bush is doing. So basically, during the nineties, virtually all Democrats, virtually all independents, and even some moderate Republicans approved of the job Clinton was doing. Now, virtually all Democrats, virtually all independents, and even a few Republicans disapprove of the kind of job Bush is doing.

Wedge issues make get you narrow majorities in elections, but they don’t mean that people like your ideas and policies.

SouthernDemocrat said:

• The right wingers always say the Democrats have no ideas, but the Republicans have not really changed their party platform since the 30s. The difference right now is that the Republicans are a lot better at politics than the Democrats.

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• 
  There may Republicans with new ideas out there, but Bush isn't one of them. The Bush jr. admin. is full of left overs from the Reagan and Bush Sr. admin.
  
  I would agree that Republicans are much better at the art of spin and playing up certain issues. Dems usually don't take their opportunities to go on the offensive but the Repubs always do. That's one of the fatal flaws of the Democratic party.

mwi said:

Enough supported him in November 2004 to re-elect him -- 3 years AFTER 9-11-01. Hmmmmm.......

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Yes, but these stats are not mutually exclusive; that is, both Bush and Kerry can have poor approval ratings, simultaneously.

The fact is, only Bush has been president during and since 911. The history shows that the American people rallied behing the president after the attacks.

Over time, the American people have realized that there was no leader to rally behind, after all. Otherwise, Bush would have fallen from 90% to a more typical plateau between 45-55% approval.