Newsweek: A Sorry State (New low of 30% re Bush approval)

[Pirate Smile]

Being announced now on MSNBC.
Bush Approval at 30% - a new low in the Newsweek poll.

On Iraq:

67% Bush makes decisions based on personal beliefs
22% Bush makes decisions based on facts

64% Congress has NOT been Assertive enough
22% Congress has been Assertive enough

I'll link to the article on the poll when it is posted.

Sorry State
Following his State of the Union address, President Bush’s approval rating hits a new low in the NEWSWEEK poll, as Sen. Hillary Clinton enjoys an early lead among the field of likely candidates in the ’08 race.


Only 42 percent think Bush's domestic-policy proposals will be seriously considered by the Congress

WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Brian Braiker
Newsweek
Updated: 21 minutes ago

Jan. 27, 2007 - President George W. Bush concluded his annual State of the Union address this week with the words “the State of our Union is strong … our cause in the world is right … and tonight that cause goes on.” Maybe so, but the state of the Bush administration is at its worst yet, according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll. The president’s approval ratings are at their lowest point in the poll’s history—30 percent—and more than half the country (58 percent) say they wish the Bush presidency were simply over, a sentiment that is almost unanimous among Democrats (86 percent), and is shared by a clear majority (59 percent) of independents and even one in five (21 percent) Republicans. Half (49 percent) of all registered voters would rather see a Democrat elected president in 2008, compared to just 28 percent who’d prefer the GOP to remain in the White House.

Public fatigue over the war in the Iraq is not reflected solely in the president’s numbers, however. Congress is criticized by nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of Americans for not being assertive enough in challenging the Bush administration’s conduct of the war. Even a third (31 percent) of rank-and-file Republicans say the previous Congress, controlled by their party, didn’t do enough to challenge the administration on the war.

Still, the new poll, which examined the preferences of registered Democrats for their party’s presidential nomination in 2008, shows that Sen. Hillary Clinton, an initial supporter of the war, has a 20-point lead over junior Sen. Barack Obama (55 percent to 35 percent) and a 34-point lead over former Sen. John Edwards (63 percent to 29 percent). Obama has a marginal seven-point lead over Edwards (46 percent to 39 percent). On the other side of the aisle, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain are closely matched at this point among Republicans: the mayor is preferred over the Arizona Senator by a statistically insignificant margin of 48 percent to 44 percent. When each GOP frontrunner is matched up against former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, it is no contest. Giuliani beats Romney by 55 points and McCain outpolls him by 50.

With about half (48 percent) of voters nationwide saying their opinion of Bush will be at least “somewhat important” in determining who gets their vote in ’08, the two Democratic frontrunners have narrow leads over their potential opponents. In a mock election, Clinton tops McCain by six points (50-44 percent) and barely edges out Giuliani by three (49-46 percent). Obama’s lead over both McCain and Giuliani is by the exact same margins (48-42 percent against the former and 47-44 percent against the latter). The races are tighter with Edwards as the Democratic candidate: the former vice presidential candidate edges out McCain by four points (48-44 percent) and is in a statistical dead heat with Giuliani (46-47 percent).

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16840614/site/newsweek/

[IDemo]

1. It seems to hit "a new low" of 30% week after week

Shouldn't it be at about - 45% by now?

[Uncle Joe]

2. I believe the Libby Trial

will probably knock him down about another ten points or so.

[HereSince1628]

5. The Libby trial may push Cheney and the OVP to near zero.

At this early point in the trial it seems to me that Cheney is being show to be the hatchet- man in chief.

I think it's inevitable that during the trial the Left, at long last, will be justified in painting Cheney as the most evil VP in the history of the nation.

[Jack Rabbit]

12. The question of the trial is 'who is the real villain? Cheney or Rove?'

That's not going to do wonders for the Frat Boy's poll numbers either.

Wait until the public catches on to the fact that the propositions that Cheney made him do it and He's taking the fall for Rove are not mutually exclusive. That, and both of those propositions can be true and the prosecution can still prove its case against Libby.

[tabasco]

21. My vote is for Cheney!

Rove is a rotten-to-the-core traitorous total POS, but Cheney makes Rove look like a choirboy.

[Jack Rabbit]

30. My vote is all three of them are up to their eyeballs in this, and the Frat Boy, too

Impeach. Indict. Imprison.

[lligrd]

39. Hear Hear - They Are All Guilty

And a whole lot of others are guilty for knowing it and not coming forward.

[pretzel4gore]

41. exactly!

Reduce, Recycle, Restore!
=new blood to run society (and wipe up old blodd)

[blondeatlast]

43. A rational person would think so, but his diehard supporters aren't rational.

Scary to think that 1/3 of the population of this nation is so deluded as to still believe and worse yet, so unafraid and unashamed to show it. I still see many of the same W stickers on my commute, although several have come off in the past several months.

[ohio2007]

3. wasn't it at 28% ? thats what one network reported the night of the SOTU .

[KAZ]

6. That was the CBS News poll. n/t

[nevergiveup]

4. The man is in a free-fall

Can Poppy save him? Can God save him? Can history save him?

[antonialee839]

19. Poppy is too busy whining about how unfair the Media is

to his idiot offspring.

[jmowreader]

24. Well, the media IS unfair...

because if we had a fair & balanced media that really was fair & balanced, Bush's numbers would be about three percent.

[The Wizard]

27. I'll bet he's wishing

Babs had swallowed.

[Zorra]

7. It's now pretty much a given that about 30% of the US population is

stupid to the point of being harmful to themselves and others.

[Ladydawnelle]

10. Lunatics

Those 30 percent need to stand in line for rabies shots or something cuz they are NOT at ALL right in the head!!

I wish they would pack up their shot guns, their whiskey stills and their pit bulls and all move to ONE bloody red state together and succeed from the Union, I say LET THEM! I'd be glad to help any DEMS still STUCK in that blood red state to get the HECK out of dodge!

Then maybe we can build that BIG FENCE they keep screaming about and just fence THEM IN like the mental mongrals they are!!!

jmo

[Betty]

17. I think they should get in line

at their nearest army, navy or marines recruiting office and get their chicken hawk asses over to fight their president's war. Move them over to Iraq,even better than putting them in one red state. Iraq can become our red state.

[Ladydawnelle]

20. Ooo great idea!

Let those that are FOR the WAR actually FIGHT the WAR! doh it's beyond simple!!

And they've lowered their standards so much that just about any old criminal can join at any old age with any old disability!!

good idea, I like it! I'll vote for it! LOL

[Yavin4]

22. Better Still, Let Them Colonize Iraq

We pull out our military, and let them move to Iraq since everything there is so great. It's a neo-con paradise. No?

[Ladydawnelle]

25. Cheney is such an idiot!

He just won't / can't / is unable to tell the truth about ANY thing!

"They will greet us with flowers, blah blah blah" ......... I think they call that pathological right?

His kids must be sooooooooo messed up. It's obvious LYNNe is missing more than a few brain cells. Maybe he threatens them with the hunting rifle?

4 deferments....... what a C.O.W.A.R.D.!!

[connecticut yankee]

46. And let them take Lieberman with them!

[calimary]

37. Welcome to DU!

These are the loyal patriotic true Americans who should be first to suit up and ship out to Iraq. bush certainly would have the numbers for his precious surge if they did.

[provis99]

40. hah! a state like that wouldn't last 2 years

we'd have to build the fence pretty high, because even the right-wing believers can't stand each other. They'd be clamouring to get back into blue-stateville fast!

[grilled onions]

8. Well... He Wanted A Legacy

He just didn't know what kind. Sadly his "fame" is at the cost of so many lives,so much money,so much destruction and has stirred up hate in so many places that whoever gets his job next will have a tough time undoing his mess.

[CountAllVotes]

9. a kick for ONE BIG LOSER!

:grr:

:kick: & RECOMMEND FOR THE LOSER BOY! :dem:

[grytpype]

11. So Hillary, Obama, and Edwards ALL beat Giuliani and McCain!

Wow. Just wow.

[rodeodance]

13. 64% Congress has NOT been Assertive enough -Send this to your Con-

critters. dems and Repug alike!

[blueblitzkrieg]

14. The more America sees of Bush, the lower he goes

he's a dismal failure in every way.

[smoogatz]

15. Look for that number to drop into the low 20's by April.

The U.S. escalation in Iraq will create a lot more American corpses, especially if we actively attack the Mahdi army and other Shi'a militias. You could even see direct Shi'a assaults on the Green Zone, and serious flareups of violence in southern Iraq, which has been relatively calm so far.

[The Wizard]

26. How about 20% on 4-20?

April 20 being Hitler's birthday.

[cynthia]

16. this guy has got to go!

David Swanson says it well: http://www.davidswanson.org/


Impeachment is a tool for removing a criminal president from office, thus establishing limitations on power for subsequent presidents. If we do not impeach Bush, we will have established that it is acceptable for presidents to lie us into wars, to spy without warrants, to detain without charge, to torture, to murder, to reverse laws with signing statements, to hide the operations of our government, to exact retribution against whistleblowers, to rig elections, to ignore hurricanes, etc

[gratuitous]

18. And yet . . .

For some strange reason, the major media outlets still feel compelled to treat this miserable failure of a man and his crooked administration as worthy of straight reporting, with nary a hint of skepticism that anything they say or do might be motivated solely by politics.

And yet, even with all this propping up (despite Bush's daddy's whiny protestations to the contrary) the public has concluded, independently of the popular media, that Bush is a loser.

[roamer65]

23. We have the worst president in American history.

Amazing that * has topped Grant, Harding, Hoover, Benjamin Harrison as the worst.

[MikeNearMcChord]

29. And 3 out of those four, were simply the case of

being out of their depth in doing the job, not being corrupt.

[54anickel]

28. "58% wish his presidency were simply over". Sweet music, that's far

more than the "mandate" he declared put him there to begin with. When do they move from simply wishing it were over to calling for it to end?

[calimary]

36. Yes. That is STUNNING.

"...more than half the country (58 percent) say they wish the Bush presidency were simply over, a sentiment that is almost unanimous among Democrats (86 percent), and is shared by a clear majority (59 percent) of independents and even one in five (21 percent) Republicans."

I'm surprised that a national news magazine would word it that way, or ask that kind of question in its poll - that would lead to that answer.

What was it? "Do you wish the bush administration was over already?"

I'd love to see the actual poll question.

Well, if the numbers are already that high, and the surge's carnage results aren't even in yet, and the investigations are only starting to get started, and the libby case isn't even near over...

HOLY COW.

HOLY frickin' COW.

[superconnected]

31. What a lously politician. Numbers are supposed to go UP after the

state of the union...unless of course, you failed to sway the nation and made your position worse.

"Half (49 percent) of all registered voters would rather see a Democrat elected president in 2008, compared to just 28 percent who’d prefer the GOP to remain in the White House."

Since he's sunk the republican party, you'd think THEY would impeach.

[gatorboy]

32. I doubt it will get below 25%

His followers are too stupid to admit when they're wrong. It's what 4 out of 5 Repugs still say his doing a great job. Let them waller in his incompetence.

[Doctor_J]

34. 30% is it, IMO

the super-rich and the Limbeciles will keep him near the freezing point.

[superconnected]

35. half of all people on the bell curve are under 100.

Nothing like a rabid angry republican hitting 85 on the bell. Correction 16% of people are under 85. More than 1 in 7 people you meet.

[mallard]

44. Re: not below 25%

I agree that support base is 'special' and not easily subject to attrition. They seem to think they can displace the other 75% as not being on board, like their lasting rewards were coming somewhere down the line.

These people, like Bush, don't have much to offer in the way of answers to questions over how the escalating violence in Iraq can possibly abate from a new 'pacification' campaign.

It won't bother them much when it doesn't, either.

Being blind and ignorant of the natural consequences of the Bush team policy helps keep them together. It will be the Iraqi 'terrorists' fault when the next surge of shit hits the fan.

[Doctor_J]

33. SOTU was a big hit

the voters have stopped giving him props just for not drooling on himself. His doltish, disengaged self was on display tuesday and people realize he is a total loser.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

38. As King George rides home from the crusades on his limping horse

[momster]

42. More Like The Crusaders Who....

decided the Holy Land was too tough, too far away, and sacked Constantinople (a Christian city) instead.

[Art_from_Ark]

48. King George the Chickenhearted

[IWantAChange]

45. What are the odds Cheney will resign before the end of his term?

The list of nefarious activities of the VP, albeit shrouded by darkness, are going to slowly but surely come into the light with trials, oversight and Congressional hearings on everything that has avoided scrutiny since King George and his court were awarded the Presidency by the Supreme Court. If I was still a betting man (which I no longer am) I'd say 60-40 at this point in time.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

47. his old 'ticker' will give in before he resigns

He has heart problems so maybe........