With a thud: George Bush’s State of the Union speech should have been his opportunity to improve his poll standings and push his agenda. But nobody watched; nobody cared.
The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Feb. 1-5 among 1,502 Americans, finds that President Bush received no bounce from his Jan. 31 State of the Union address. Bush’s approval rating stands at 40 percent largely unchanged over the past month. Interest in Bush’s speech was fairly modest about as many paid very close attention to the recent layoffs at the Ford Motor Co. (25 percent) as to the State of the Union (24 percent). The public continues to take a mixed view of Bush’s performance on issues generally positive on terrorism (55 percent% approval) but negative on virtually every domestic issue. In two key areas, health care and the deficit, Bush’s ratings have declined markedly over the past year, to below 30 percent on each issue.
The public believes it is generally right for the government to monitor communications of Americans suspected of having terrorist ties without first obtaining permission from the courts.But the president appears to be making headway with his defense of the government’s authority to conduct warrantless wiretaps of suspected terrorists. By 54 percent-43 percent, the public believes it is generally right for the government to monitor communications of Americans suspected of having terrorist ties without first obtaining permission from the courts. In early January, the public was evenly divided over this issue (48 percent generally right/47 percent generally wrong). Moderate and liberal Republicans, in particular, are now more supportive of the program. In January, moderate and liberal Republicans favored warrantless monitoring of suspected terrorists by 56 percent-41 percent; now by about three-to-one (71 percent-24 percent) they feel the program is generally right.
That’s disturbing. Having listened to Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez smirk, obfuscate, evade and probably lie his way through yesterday’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearings, I’m as alarmed as committee members of both parties are. But the public isn’t getting it. They are buying the GOP’s message that if the prez sez it’s necessary to “fat terrists,” it’s okay to flaunt the law. Oh yeah, and no warrant means no paper trail — see you in Romania, son.
Like Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said, this program is a lot bigger and a lot scarier than Gonzalez and Bush want us to know.
That’s the story of America–nobody listens, nobody cares…So, we’ll have three more years (or more if Tricky George decides to cancel future elections) of Bush and the Republicons, at least.
Thank God the American public did not buy into that pack of lies, exaggerations and fluffy talk called the SOTU. The true SOTU is very, very poor – a corrupt, bloated and ineffective government, a quagmire in Iraq, environmental degradation, a bankrupt and upside-down economy, etc.
To respond to weathervane: Count on eight more years of Jeb Bush after that. You think the Dems have a prayer of winning in 2008? Dream on….