Two new polls provide more evidence that decided majorities of Americans have lost conifdence in Pres. Bush:

ABC/Washington Post: Americans broadly reject President Bush’s plan for a surge of U.S. forces into Iraq, with substantial majorities dismissing his arguments that it’ll end the war more quickly and increase the odds of victory, an ABC News/Washington Post poll finds.

Indeed, rather than Bush bolstering public confidence, the national survey, conducted after his address to the nation on his new Iraq strategy, finds that a new high — 57 percent — think the United States is losing the war. Just 29 percent think it’s winning.

CBS: Fifty percent of those who saw the speech said they disapprove of the president’s proposals, while 37 percent said they approve. Just one-third of those surveyed said they support Mr. Bush’s call to send more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq.

Following the speech, 68 percent of Americans — the same number as prior to the speech — said they were uneasy about the president’s ability to make decisions about Iraq.

The 29 percent in the WaPo poll who are under the delusion that we are winning in Iraq is very similar to another number: In 1974, roughly 25 percent of Americans still approved of Pres. Nixon when he resigned over his involvement in Watergate-related crimes. The Nixon number has historically been considered the benchmark for the hardcore Republican base.

If so, Bush is scraping bottom even before his new war escalation gets underway.