Holy crap! Bush’s approval ratings sink to 29% in the new Harris poll, the first to break the psychologically important 30% barrier. Even if this poll is an outlier, this is a very big deal.
I think we’re now seeing the second part of a two-parter. In part one, more and more voters became convinced that Bush was an ineffective president due to the mounting evidence of incompetence, and despite the cheerleading from the press, other Americans, and the Bush Administration itself. The floor can only go so low in this phase because there exists a perception that the president is basically trustworthy and competent, and political non-participants will still ‘approve’ because they just think what (they think) everyone else thinks.
But in part two, which probably started with Katrina, the public perception shifts. As more people distrust and despise the president, the bandwagon effect pulls the inattentive ‘approvers’ into the ‘disapprove’ camp. The floor, long sinking, now drops out entirely.
I’ve predicted 25% by August, but Junior might just beat that. I’ll leave the prediction where it is for now; I’m aware that it gets asymptotically more difficult to lose each new point. Still, Chimpy may surprise us all.
I don’t know why I’m fascinated by this topic. Maybe because it’s like watching sleepers wake.
Update: I have just noticed that the maker of this wonderful chart is going to have to redo the graphic to accommodate the lower scores. Amazing.
15 May 2006 at 8:52 pm
As of now the only other president to have stayed under 40% for this amount of time is Nixon. I’d have to agree that even Nixon was a better prez.