Presidential Peril? Bush's Popularity is Narrowly Based - ABC News

[TacticalPeek]

Presidential Peril?
Bush's Popularity is Narrowly Based; Democrats Match Him in Public Trust

Analysis
By Gary Langer

Jan. 19 — George W. Bush starts his fourth year in office with an intricate riddle
unsolved: How to translate his broad popularity in one critical area — fighting
terrorism — into strength in others where he's substantially weaker, from the economy
to a range of domestic issues.

Despite his strengths, the task is a pressing one: On the eve of his third State of the
Union address and at the start of an election year, the Democrats in Congress now
match Bush in public trust to handle the nation's main problems, 44 percent to 45
percent.

That's Bush's weakest result on this question in the last two years, and it underscores
his conundrum: His overall job approval rating — 58 percent, fueled by 66 percent
approval for handling terrorism — is much better than his ratings on a variety of
individual issues would imply. The president's strength is significant but narrowly
based, and that makes it potentially vulnerable.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/US/bush_sotu_poll_040119.html

[jpgray]

1. War and fear are his only popular issues

That is a lousy base to run on.

[wtmusic]

13. It all kind of boils down to fear

which enabled the selling of the war.

[aquart]

2. In other words, most sane people hate his treasonous guts?

[KissMyAsscroft]

3. People tire of war all the time...

People get sick of terror all day, 24/7.

[AngryYoungMan]

4. I don't understand...

...how elected officials and journalists can routinely talk this way as if Bush is "fighting terrorism." The reason the public thinks he is "fighting terrorism" is because Bush says he's doing it and nobody challenges him. Every single time I read something like the above I wonder how all the people involved (even the newswire staffpeople) can keep from screaming, "HE'S NOT FIGHTING TERRORISM! He's IGNORING Al-Quaeda! He's JUST STEALING OIL! AAAH!" What will it take for this bull**** to stop?

[leftchick]

7. well said AYM.....

and I ponder those same thoughts daily...

[tinrobot]

5. Prepare for the worst...

If that's his strongest issue, I get the feeling they're going to try and scare the bejeesus out of us over the next 10 months. Prepare for multiple orange/red alerts, lots of arrests, delayed airline flights, and perhaps - god forbid- a terrorist attack of some sort.

These people will stop at nothing. They have no shame.

[Malva Zebrina]

6. Despite his strengths?

What would they be? He is a total failure and has no strengths.!!

What this article is referring to is the "strenghts" the media have given him.

I will never forget after watching the debates and how Gore was articulate and made sense and George was out there saying "Jesus" was his faviorite philosopher, the media declared the idiot from a small Texas village, the winner. I will never forget that.

And today, I see they are also spreading the rumor that Judy Steinberg Dean's voice was "shaking" as she addressed the crowd that was there cheering on her husband. There was NO ]shaking of her voice at all!! They are on the attack and indeed, other than George Bush and the neocons to fight, we also have to fight the lying media.

[leesa]

18. That's when I was really scared too because I knew the media was

fully in the pocket of the GOP. There was NO WAY Bush even made any rational sense in those debates, that is if he bothered to answer a question at all, yet Gore lost because of his make-up!
ALL the media declared the dunce Bush, with the most terrible record as Governor of Texas, the winner of three debates in which he did a terrible job. Most any third grader could have done better.

[zbdent]

8. Hasn't he declared his tax cut policy a weapon on the War on Terror?

I bet I can come up with about 500,000 more reasons why the unknown Dem should win in November than the number of reasons Bush might win.

[dusty64]

9. This headline surprises

me, the media actually reporting the truth. Whats going on here?

[Military Brat]

10. What's going on here, dusty64, is the kneepads are coming off

Maybe the media is tired of giving bush what he doesn't deserve

[number6]

11. based on his narrow mind

what strengths ????? :shrug:

[lancdem]

12. I love those public trust numbers

And Bush only beats the generic Dem by 2 points, 48 to 46. So even though his approval rating is 8 points higher than the CBS/N.Y. Times poll, the numbers on this and other issues aren't much different. Also, Bush's strong disapproval is 30 percent (a high for him) and his strong approval is 35 percent, only a 5-point difference.

[KayLaw]

14. Shame

How can people believe he's doing a good job fighting terror when he's the one who ignored all the warnings of the attacks on September 11th, and now is trying to obstruct the hearings. There has always been terrorism and there always will be but George Bush just sat back and let those attacks happen on his watch.:grr:

[slor]

15. You are sooo...

RIGHT. That coward was flying around all day while the country was watching the attacks play out. How he gets high points for his war on terror is beyond me.

[CatWoman]

16. drip.............drip...............drip

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=30425

[are_we_united_yet]

19. I hope so

I hope so

[0007]

17. ....and then tried to get the American people to believe that

Air Force Once was a target for the terrorist.