Deeper and Down

By Mark Tran

Americans are more pessimistic about the direction their country is heading than at any time in the past 23 years, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

George Bush's approval ratings stand at just 31%, meaning he is tied with his father as the third worst rated modern president. Richard Nixon registered 24% in a Gallup poll shortly before resigning after Watergate, while Jimmy Carter scored 26% towards the end of his White House stint.

Just as bad, 70% thought the country was heading in the wrong direction, compared to 23% who thought the opposite, the worst numbers in over two decades.

Notwithstanding all the caveats about opinion polls, this must fill the White House and congressional Republicans who face mid-term polls in November with foreboding, as other surveys tell the same story.

It seems less and less likely that George Bush will be able to mount the sort of comeback Ronald Reagan engineered in his second term after the Iran-Contra arms for hostages for scandal.

Like Reagan, Mr Bush has sought to reinvigorate his presidency by bringing in new blood: a new chief of staff in Joshua Bolten and a new spokesman, Tony Snow, formerly of Fox News.

But, unlike Reagan, nicknamed the Teflon president because nothing bad seemed to stick, Mr Bush has a highly unpopular war on his hands. Whatever boost the president received after a swift supposed victory has long since dissipated and the continuation of the war has steadily eroded support for him, much as it has done in Britain for Tony Blair.

Americans are also unhappy about the rise in petrol prices, which they link to Iraq. Seventy nine per cent of Americans think the administration has no plan to bring down petrol prices.

The problem with the current situation is that Mr Bush's standing rests upon a situation in a faraway land over which he wields little control. No matter how much he insists that things are getting better in Iraq - and this may well be the case - for most Americans the improvement is not happening fast enough, while the costs keep ballooning.

The New York Times/CBS poll showed that 60% of Americans said the US should set a deadline for pulling out of Iraq.

Yet the administration seems intent on digging itself deeper into a hole. When the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a letter to Mr Bush proposing "new solutions", the US dismissed the overture. Even if it was just a diplomatic ploy, the US could have called Iran's bluff. At the very least, such a move would have taken some pressure off oil prices.

The US also seems intent on picking a fight with Russia, with the vice-president, Dick Cheney, accusing the Kremlin of using oil and gas exports to "intimidate and blackmail" European neighbours.

While the behaviour of the state-controlled Russian energy giant Gazprom leaves a lot to be desired, why rankle Vladimir Putin when the US needs Russia onside in order to deal with Iran? Such diplomatic cack-handedness on Iran and Russia is not going to do much to help Mr Bush's slide in the polls.