Here is more confirmation, not that any is needed, that over a quarter of Americans are dangerously delusional. A new poll from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press has George Bush’s job approval rating at 28 percent, which is remarkably — no, stupendously — high by any rational measure.
Bush has been polling around 30 percent for months. Statistically speaking, all of these Bush lovers are Republicans. Seven years on, it is still a giant mystery what these people see in him.
Good news, though. Fewer people are identifying themselves as Republicans, according to Pew:
In [the poll taken in January and February], 36 percent identify themselves as Democrats, and just 27 percent as Republicans.
The share of voters who call themselves Republicans has declined by six points since 2004, and represents, on an annualized basis, the lowest percentage of self-identified Republican voters in 16 years of polling by the Center.
The Democratic Party has also built a substantial edge among independent voters. Of the 37 percent who claim no party identification, 15 percent lean Democratic, 10 percent lean Republican, and 12 percent have no leaning either way.
And with all of this, John McCain still gets support from a little over half the electorate in most national polls.
- Topic: News & Comment
What, you’ve never stayed in a relationship with somebody you KNEW was bad for you?
Once summer mix gas costs hit us at the pumps, and there is much more fall-out from the sub-prime mortgage mess, PLUS the complete over-exuberance in the costs of housing stocks, and Basra keeps up and keeps spreading thru Iraq, and the Turks and Iranians keep fanning the flames there, I bet money 28% will look like a high for the Bush Presidency.
Bush will drop at least 8% poins before August and we’ll feel much better emotionally. It’s hard to justify wanting to repair a country when 30% of the population is insane or stupid; it’s quite another to beleive you can help it, if only 1/5th of it are insane or stupid. So, 20% seems controllable, but 30% seems insurmountable.
A brilliant politician will start laying the foundations now for how screwed we as a society are and will be for a very long time.
Trust your fellow citizens. We’ve always been smarter and stronger and more driven than any of our leaders have given us credit for.
I’m not saying we’re not dumber than hell, or self-defeating or myopic or gready or lazy. I am saying we can be better.We have done better. And we will always rise to any challenge or task that is placed before us. And we will put everything else aside.
This 28 percent represents the hard-core far right wing what no one can inject any common sense into. They’re hopelessly brainwashed. Not for nothing that they refuse to support John McCain Nor is it any accident that, other than Iraq, McCain is maintaining a sharp distance from Bush.
But sooner or later, McCain will be forced to make a clean break from Bush even on Iraq — or else, by his own admission, he’ll lose the November election.
Not that Iraq will matter much after the Memorial Day weekend. By that time, gasoline prices will be well over $4 a gallon and the economy will be mired in a deep recession — with unemployment soaring toward double digits, consumer spending plunging to only the vital necessities and the housing sector in a full-scale depression.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s even a run on at least one major consumer bank — triggering a stock-market panic to rival the 1929 crash — by the time the Republican convention in Minneapolis opens in September. If that happens, then nothing can save McCain’s candidacy, for it’s been a cruel fact of American politics since the 1930s that when the economy goes to hell, the president’s party loses the White House.
Contrary to popular belief, it was the 1980 recession — NOT the Iran hostage crisis — that did in Jimmy Carter. And we all know what the 1992 recession did to George Bush, Senior.
And that’s not all. At least 29 Republican members of the House of Representatives and nine GOP members of the Senate have already announced their retirements — the highest number of Capitol Hill Republicans heading to the exits before an election since the Democrats’ post-Watergate landslide of 1974.
The GOP is badly trailing the Democrats in campaign fundraising for the first time since 1964 — a gap made worse by the revelation that as much as $1 million in House GOP campaign funds may have been embezzled by the former treasurer of the National Republican Congressional Committee!
So I’m not at all worried about the impact the current fight between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would have on the Democrats’ chances of recapturing the White House in November. The GOP is TOAST — period.
That’s a very good assessment, Skeeter. But there’s one factor we can’t overlook. For all the reasons you stated, the Republicans are as desperate as rabid rats. Even in the best of times, they will lie, cheat and steal to win elections, just for starters. With their backs to the wall, the possible dirty tricks they might get up to is truly mind-boggling.
And it’s impossible to predict what effect an attack would have on the electorate. A rallying ’round the “daddy party” candidate is one very likely outcome. (I don’t think Republicans are above some sort of false flag operation, but if there is an attack, a lot of people will be immediately suspicious.)
Just one very small example of what’s at stake for them: By law, presidential records are supposed to be unsealed 12 years after last day of the president’s term, which meant that Reagan-Bush records — including the real dope on Iran-Contra and Bush I’s role therein — were supposed to be released in 2001, but Bush II countermanded the law and had them sealed indefinitely. If a Dem is elected president, those records will be unsealed post-haste and a lot of damaging info about Bush I and especially St. Ronnie will be made public. Can’t have that.
If a Dem is president next time, a lot of current Bushies will suddenly find their friend the Dept. of Justice is now their enemy. Can’t have that either.
“And with all of this, John McCain still gets support from a little over half the electorate in most national polls.”
That’s easy!
Wrinkled rich old white guy
versus
black guy
woman
I would love to believe the comments on this thread, but recent history tells me a Democrat is not going to unseal those records. Even if it was Hillary, it’s an Old Boys club where both parties watch the other’s back. I’m not entirely certain we will have a Democrat in the White House. Too many of Hillary or Obama’s supporters seem willing to cross over and vote McBush, out of spite. Also, we seem to always have 28% of this country that’s dumber than a post and will insist on inflicting their stupidity on the rest of us. Meanwhile, the Democrats totally lack a spine and won’t be able to overcome the 30 or so Repug Senators that will be left. Nancy Pelosi will continue her spineless rein over the House and the War will drag on, the deficits will get larger and the Repugs will find several ways to blame us for their mess.
Lefties have been making the same mistake your several years now, in questioning why Republicans support Bush despite everything.
Without doubt, Bush is the Worst American President in anybodies lifetime.
BUT he is the greatest Republican president in that same time period, He has accomplished so much of the Republican agenda he makes Reagan look like a slacker.
And that’s why Republicans love him.
People who say Bush has caused them to leave the Republican Party don’t understand what the party was all about.
“People who say Bush has caused them to leave the Republican Party don’t understand what the party was all about.”
To the contrary, it is precisely because they come to know what the current Republican Party is all about, which has zero to do with the party of Ike or the party of Goldwater.
The current Republican Party is not unlike political parties that came before them that put party before self, party before country, party before everything.
Of course these parties were in places like Italy, Germany, the USSR and China.
Bush’s approval ratings in the polls will never drop below 25%, since the people being polled are avid watchers and believers in anything that F** News shovels out into the airwaves.
Nice article. I am surprised I have not seen more like this. How is it possible for Bush’s approval ratings to remain near 30% despite everything he touches turning into a disaster. The media is largely to blame for not scrutinizing more and truthfully advertising what is happening and his role. He is an idiot in a china shop (Please don’t touch anything else!!) except that when he breaks it, we and the Iraqis and the rest of the world ultimately pay for it.
Also, in my lifetime, the Republican Party has always been the Party of Greed. Conservatives used to promote small government because they hated the Federal Government for taking wealth away from them through taxes. What has changed is their ability to understand and manipulate the system to take the country’s resources and wealth and focus it on themselves. What has not changed is the Greed as the driving force behind the Party.
This is not to say the Dems are great. They put Party before our Constitution in avoiding even mentioning impeachment because they worry it will decrease their chances of winning the White House in ‘08.
Meanwhile, I sit here wondering when I will get a “Representative” in Washington who actually represents my and the general population’s interests.
As I have said for several years, “let’s flush the toilet in Washington and start over”.