End Game on Bush's Approval: Realignment

by Chris Bowers

In November, seven public polling organizations have done approval polls on Bush. Here is a summary table of their findings (mostly from polling report):

Poll Date Approve Disapprove Gap
Fox 11/9 36 53 -17
AP 11/9 37 61 -24
NBC 11/7 38 57 -19
Pew 11/6 36 55 -19
ABC 11/2 39 60 -21
Zogby 11/2 39 61 -22
CBS 11/1 35 57 -22
Mean ---- 37.1 57.7 -20.6

This is really, really bad. However, just how bad it is has not yet sunk in to the country at large. Taking a long view, this is the second lowest approval of any President over the last 25 years. Clinton never sunk to these lows (his lowest poll was -14. Reagan never sunk to these lows, although he did have a -21 approval poll in early 1983. In fact, the only President since Carter to sink to this low point over the last twenty five years was Bush's father from June through October of 1992. Even then, Bush Sr. never reached 61% disapproval. In fact, besides Bush Jr., only Nixon has hit that high point in the last 50 years.

So where does all this lead? www.mydd.com