President Bush's Ratings Fall Sharply

President's ratings now 52% positive, 46% negative

Colin Powell now the only Cabinet Member or political leader with very high ratings

 

ROCHESTER, NY - February 19 - The last two months have taken a heavy toll on the president's popularity, but a modest 52% to 46% majority still gives him positive ratings. Two months ago, almost two-thirds of all adults (64%) gave the president positive ratings and only just over a third (35%) gave him negative ratings.

Other members of President Bush's cabinet, as well as the parties in Congress and Congressional leaders, with one exception, have all seen a huge decline in their popularity since the very high numbers we recorded soon after September 11, 2001. The one exception is Secretary of State Colin Powell. He still enjoys an extraordinarily high degree of popularity, with 76% giving him positive ratings and only 21% giving him negative ratings. These numbers are fractionally better than they were in December 2002, perhaps because of his powerful recent testimony to the United Nations Security Council.

While none of the other leaders has seen as big declines since last December as President Bush, their numbers, nonetheless, are all down very substantially since their peak soon after September 11.

Including results from the latest poll, we see the following declines in popularity since soon after September 11, 2001:

* President Bush down from 88% to 52%, a decline of 36 points.

* Secretary of State Colin Powell down from 88% to 76%, a decline of 12 points.

* Vice President Dick Cheney down from 69% to 45%, a decline of 24 points.

* Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld down from 78% to 56%, a decline of 22 points.

* Attorney General John Ashcroft down from 65% to 51%, a decline of 14 points.

* House Speaker Dennis Hastert down from 52% to 33%, a decline of 19 points.

* The Republicans in Congress down from 67% to 43%, a decline of 24 points.

* The Democrats in Congress down from 68% to 38%, a decline of 30 points.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll®, a nationwide telephone survey conducted by Harris Interactive® among a sample of 1,010 adults, from February 12 to 16, 2003.

The Importance of Issues

In December only 18% of all adults spontaneously replied "the war" when asked to think of the most important issues for the government to address. This was far below the economy at 34% but ahead of all the other issues.

Now, fully 38% say that "the war" is one of the two most important issues for the government to address, virtually tied with the economy at 37%. Furthermore, the next two issues mentioned most frequently are terrorism (16%) and Iraq/Saddam Hussein (15%). Most other issues which were mentioned by substantial numbers of people have declined in importance: those saying education are down from 11% to 5%, those saying homeland domestic security are down from 9% to 6%, those saying employment/jobs are down from 8% to 5% and those saying health care are down from 10% to 8%.

These responses were not picked from any list. They are the unaided responses of those surveyed.

Methodology

The Harris Poll® was conducted by telephone within the United States between February 12 and 16, 2003 among a nationwide cross section of 1,010 adults (ages 18+). Figures for age, sex, race, education, number of adults and number of voice/telephone lines in the household were weighted where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population.

In theory, with a probability sample of this size, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the results have a statistical precision of plus or minus 3 percentage points of what they would be if the entire adult population had been polled with complete accuracy. Unfortunately, there are several other possible sources of error in all polls or surveys that are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. They include refusals to be interviewed (non-response), question wording and question order, interviewer bias, weighting by demographic control data and screening (e.g., for likely voters). It is impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors.

Do notice that other important issues have been driven down on the Radar Screen. This means that to some degree Bush's strategy of using War to divert attention from his massive incompetence in other areas is working.

Work on everyone you come in touch with to remind them of the issues being ignored by this big War diversion. They may want the Oil and Power but they are also using it to keep people from noticing the collapse of the dollar and the economy. And those are important issues for the wellbeing of all.

A while ago I did a regression analysis of his poll numbers over time, and the resultant predictive linear equation put him below 50% before April, and about 27% by election day 2004..

...so far, the equation seems to be on track

I can hear the chorus growing louder and louder:

Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey-ey, goodbye

Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey-ey, goodbye

Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey-ey, goodbye

Polling results tend to fluctuate up and down, as they've done since Bush was elected. Expect the numbers to bounce back up again.

Remember too that an election requires an opponent. The Democrats are hurting for a suitable candidate. Gebhart is a laugher. Daschle completely discredited himself over the past year by blocking every positive piece of legislation he could. Hillary is a hateful bitch who Americans would never elect. Senator Kerry from Mass. is very much the 'New England Libera,' a character type that the southern and midwestern states would never go for. Who are they going to run? They've got an empty cupboard and a tough task coming up with someone who could give GWB a serious challenge.

And, the Democrats are very scary leaders when it comes to National Defense and foreign policy. That's one of the reasons Bill Clinton will always own the bottom rung of the Presidential ladder when the history books are written.

A fluctuation is a small change around a median not a nose dive into oblivion (which contrary to popular rumor is not in Kansas).

I would expect that as things progress we could get down to KPC's 27% which is at the "Kool-Aid Drinker" support level. To this day Richard Nixon still has defenders as does Adolph Hitler, Henry Kissinger, Stalin, Mao, and Mussolini.

Some of the people can be fooled all the time.

You know, Bush Admirer, we tried to raise you to be a good boy, and look at you! You're a disgrace! We taught you that greed was wrong, that killing was wrong, that stealing was wrong, that lying was wrong, that calling people names was wrong, and just look at you! If you were here we would spank you and send you to bed without dinner! And your fixation with Democrats, oh dear.

"Daschle completely discredited himself over the past year by blocking every positive piece of legislation he could." We're sure he did block some GOOD legislation, that may have benefited the American PEOPLE, not corporations. He's a corporate whore. But we assume you mean Republican legislation. My dear, the Republicans haven't introduced good legislation in, oh my, 100 years? Shame on you!

"Hillary is a hateful bitch who Americans would never elect. " Oh my! Such awful, sexist language! Shame shame shame on you! We would wash your mouth out with soap if you were here!

"Senator Kerry from Mass. is very much the 'New England Libera,' a character type that the southern and midwestern states would never go for." Such a vague, disingenuous generalization, BA. No proof! Shame!

We, your Aunties, taught you that folks like these, whether Republican or Democrat, are elitist, and represent the interests of said elites. To play along with the game that there is much of a difference, is really silly, BA. You've been brainwashed! Our dear nephew! We tried to imbue you with critical thinking skills. We told you that there is no such thing as a dualistic world. We tried to teach you how to recognize bad people. And now here you are, spending you time spamming the nice people of this website with lies. Where on earth did we go wrong?

Aunties Dearest

What can I say. When it comes to politics, you make great pumpkin pie. You knit very well too. You really should stick to your knitting.

Republicans are on the right side of most issues. For instance, they're pro-business, pro-Capitalism, anti-big labor, against big government, for lower taxes, against Socialism, and they have principles.

Democrats are for sale to the highest bidder. Can you say Buddists? Can you say Lincoln Bedroom? Can you say Presidential Pardon? They're slimeballs dressed up in suits and ties.

Most of the successful people in this country are Republicans. Sucessful people are the achievers who pay most all of the taxes and carry almost all of the load.

Most of the unsuccessful people are either Democrats, Greens, or Don't Know. The ones that are Don't Know haven't tuned into a news program for a long time. They're too busy watching Joe Millionaire and Survival. Before that it was Cheers. They haven't a clue because they haven't been paying attention and they don't care.

If we must choose leaders to run our democratic government, then it seems logical to me that we choose leaders who've had some successes in the business world. Given a choice between a seasoned business leader like GWB, and a career government worker (using the term 'worker' in conjunction with government employees is a stretch I know) like Al Gore we should pick GWB every time. The choice is even clearer when the alternative is someone who has never really held a job, like Ralph Nader or Jesse Jackson.

will never make a cake out of

SH*T no matter how many sprinkles

you use.

Monkeyboy.

What I meant to say was, "That nigger Jesse Jackson . . ."

Sorry.