39% Approval and Falling

A 39% approval rating means that at least one party absolutely hates you. When Clinton had a 65% approval rating, it meant that there were some self identifying Republicans that approved of the way Clinton was leading the country. There had to be. It's simple math. Granted those were middle ground Republicans, but still. At a 50%-50% split, you can figure that you have the support of one party, but not the other. When you start talking about a 40%-60% split, you're losing support from your own party. As such, any continued fall in the polls indicates that your base is defecting.

Zogby International has conducted it's survey and released the results yesterday.

What is remarkable in this latest poll, conducted Feb. 15-18, 2006, is that President Bush shows weakness among the demographic groups that have comprised the heart of his political base over the past five years, according to Pollster John Zogby, President and CEO of Zogby International.

Pollster John Zogby: On Bush, his overall approval/disapproval rating is 40%-60%, but he has his lowest support yet from those groups who make up his political base. Among both conservatives and those who consider themselves very conservative, 61% approve of the job he is doing. He gets only 32% of independents, and only 73% among Republicans – his lowest rating yet. Even rural voters give him just 50% approval, and 59% among those who say they are born again spiritually – marking the lowest ratings from both of these demographic groups. And Bush remains low among men, married voters and investors.

As for Iraq, his approval/ disapproval rating stands at 37%-63%; just 12% of Democrats approve of his handling of the war, compared to 88% who disapprove, which are percentages similar to our last poll. Among independents, 26% approve of his war leadership, while 74% do not, which is down slightly from our last survey. Only 68% of Republicans support his handling of the war.

On his management of the war on terror, Bush wins 43% approval, down from 67%at the time of his re-election almost 16 months ago.

See the rest of the article for more.


Bush Approval Rating Zogby