More bad news for President Bush in the new Washington Post-ABC News poll:

The survey found that 58 percent of those interviewed said Bush is concentrating mainly in his second term on problems and partisan squabbles that these respondents said were unimportant to them. Four in 10 — 41 percent — said the president was focused on important problems — a double-digit drop from three years ago.

Wow! That sounds pretty bad. But then, incredibly, there’s this:

Overall, the president’s job approval rating stood at 48 percent, virtually identical to where it was last month. Currently 52 percent of the public disapproves of the job Bush is doing as president, the first time in his presidency that more than half of the public has expressed negative views of the president’s performance.

That is just astounding. How can this man have a 48 percent approval rating? It’s more evidence of the waffling by the voters in the middle, the Swingsters. They are really conflicted about Bush. They say he’s doing a good job on one hand, and on the other, it appears they are waking up:

Ominously for Bush and the Republicans, a strong majority of self-described political independents — 68 percent — say they disagreed with the president’s priorities. That suggests Bush’s mixed record in the second term on issues the public views as critical — particularly on Iraq and the economy — may be as much a liability for GOP candidates in next year’s mid-term election as his performance in his first term was an asset to Republican congressional hopefuls last year and in 2002.

Well, my Independent friends, you didn’t “like” Kerry so you went with the team who had the demonstrably bad record. A box of hammers could do a better job running the country – and they’re not done yet screwing things up.