Desperate conservatism: In today’s PollTrack by the National Journal, most folks don’t expect the Worst President Ever to get an infusion of “political capital” from the favorable economic news coming out this week. At least not enough to bring his approval rating out of the toilet.
Time/SRBI pollsters put his overall approval rating at 41 percent, 1 point lower than Time’s September poll. Of the 53 percent who disapproved, more than three-quarters said they were unlikely to change their minds about Bush’s performance.
And a 49-percent plurality said the president isn’t likely to recover from the blow to his approval ratings. Forty-six percent predicted he could regain his higher numbers, but when asked if a series of nine issues were driving down their opinions of Bush’s performance, pluralities of respondents said yes for every one.
Majorities frowned on his work on the economy, Social Security and the budget deficit. His Iraq policies and higher energy prices were least popular, with about two-thirds saying those issues pushed down their assessments. Forty-five percent said those two areas had a very negative impact on their ratings.
Bush got his highest ratings on “providing leadership in times of crisis,” which 51 percent of respondents said they approved of — up 3 points since the September poll, which was conducted about a week after Hurricane Katrina. Four in 10 said they approved of his work on the economy; 38 percent had a favorable view of his handling of the situation in Iraq.Respondents were split on Bush’s intentions at the outset of the conflict: 48 percent said he deliberately misled the public to bolster his case for war, but 45 percent said he was honest based on the intelligence he had. A slim majority said they thought U.S. actions in Iraq had made the country more vulnerable to terrorists, but 63 percent said they thought the United States is better prepared to respond to attack since the Sept. 11 attacks.
A 47-percent plurality also said they wanted to withdraw troops within the next year regardless of the situation on the ground; four in 10 wanted to keep most of the American force in Iraq until stability was achieved, even if it took several years. Eight percent said they wanted to increase the troop level.
And although 2008 is still almost three long years away, the final question of the release might worry some GOP insiders. Just 36 percent said that in the next election, they wanted to see a president who was similar to Bush “in terms of policies and programs.” Six in 10 said they wanted a president who was “completely different” than Bush.
