President Bush's job approval rating is down to 35%. Ouch! If you believe the work of Richard Neustadt, and that presidential power is closely tied to reputation, it looks like things are going to be awfully rough for the president for the remainder of the year. But the number in this CBS poll that really stood out to me, even more than the president's incredible unpopularity, is that Vice President Cheney's favorable rating is down to 19%! That's practically toxic. What else is that unpopular? Cross burnings? Sexually transmitted diseases? That's really stunningly poor.
Oh, and want an example of what happens to presidents as unpopular as Bush? Try Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) proposing to build a fence all along the US-Mexico border on the very same day that the president goes to an international conference aimed at improving our ties with our allies in Latin America. Numbers like that give room for powerful congressional leaders of the president's own party to embarrass the president so badly. At 35%, the president is badly weakened.
Posted by armand at November 3, 2005 10:22 AM | TrackBack | Posted to Politics