Forty-Four Percent Of Americans Strongly Disapprove Of Bush (Gallup)

[Mark E. Smith]

Gallup News Service
03/08/06

PRINCETON, NJ -- The latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll finds more than 4 in 10 Americans strongly disapproving of the job George W. Bush is doing as president. His support among core supporters (Republicans and conservatives) is as weak as it has been. Only 40% of Americans believe Bush can manage the government effectively, the worst rating he has received on this measure of his presidency. Other measures of Bush's personal characteristics are also at or near their lowest points.

When Americans were asked a follow-up of whether they strongly approve or disapprove of Bush, more than twice as many Americans say they strongly disapprove of Bush, more than twice as many Americans say they strongly disapprove (44%) as say they strongly approve (22%) of Bush. The strong disapproval rating is the highest Gallup has measured for Bush by a percentage point, and is the highest for any president since Richard Nixon during the Watergate era.

Nixon is the only other president to register strong disapproval ratings above 40% in Gallup Polls. Nixon had a 48% strong disapproval rating in February 1974, and a 46% rating days before he resigned from office in August 1974. Gallup first asked about strength of approval during the Lyndon Johnson administration, and has asked it periodically for every president since.

Forty-nine percent of Republicans now strongly approve of Bush, the lowest expression of solidarity with Bush by his own party to date.

http://poll.gallup.com/content/?ci=21808

[Donkeykick]

1. Yahoo!

Keep it up Dubya! Get it down to 10%!:headbang:

[grytpype]

12. And it's only going to get worse...

and worse... and worse...

for both him and for America... but when he's gone America will still be around!

[krkaufman]

34. Personally hope he's the most popular and successful Pres ever.

... because the alternative, where it looks like he's currently taking us and where his approval will further plummet, is something I'd rather avoid. May an enlightened, forgiving God please bestow success upon supply-side economics and Bush's pre-emptive war. ('cause it's gonna take a frickin' miracle, at this point, to pull out of the tailspin into which the GOP have piloted us)

[coalition_unwilling]

40. God better bless America, b/c the Crime Family has

sure fucked it up.

[Ben Ceremos]

41. Why leave it up to an imaginary being?

I thought democracy required your personal participation, if I understand the meaning of the word.

[Name removed]

44. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Is It Only Me]

2. Only?

I'm amazed that the other 56 percent aren't!

[grytpype]

21. Welcome to DU!!!!

[acmejack]

3. What's below strongly disapprove?

Fucking Detest? Abhor? Despise? Are Repulsed? Puke at the Thought Of? I fall in one of those catgories...

[buddysmellgood]

6. HA! Yes, I believe you are correct. Fucking Detest. That should have been

a choice. This poll is skewed.

[ladjf]

31. There needs to be something worse than "fucking detest".

How about "loaths"?

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. Yeah, strongly disapproves

just doesn't quite measure the depths of my disgust.

[Canuckistanian]

26. I "strongly disapprove" of onions on my sandwiches

I also "fucking detest" Shrub. He offends me on every level of my being.

[Lochloosa]

14. ...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
Fucking Detest!

[EVDebs]

20. The other 56% just plain DISAPPROVE of * ? or are waking up to it

The DU cover of Bush's R followers 'jumping ship' and the conventions where they acknowledge being in deep * only means that the media ownership is still solidly behind the chimp. When that changes (and the rank and file reporters are waking up, esp during Katrina) then you'll see the fun begin.

[merbex]

4. Doesn't this jump out at you?

Forty-nine percent of Republicans now strongly approve of Bush, the lowest expression of solidarity with Bush by his own party to date.

I never thought I'd see him below 70% strongly approve with that group

[Kolesar]

9. A lot of indies no longer identify as gops,

leaving only the cross-eyed insane zealots in the Gop.

[mom cat]

25. The question is how they are going to throw him under the bus.

[ArbustoBuster]

33. Hunting trip with Cheney.

:D

[mom cat]

39. LOL! ,,, Of course!

[rooboy]

5. As long as three people still like him the idiot thinks he has a mandate.

eom

[skipos]

7. You have to admit, he sure is a uniter.

Uniting everyone against him.

[yardwork]

8. As low as Nixon

It'll go lower.

[WePurrsevere]

11. Finally something to brighten my day a bit. Hopefully he will continue

ticking off Americans so they'll turn on all the neo-CONs up for election this Nov. With any "luck" the trend will continue until the Dems totally take back our country in '08 so we can get back on a much better and highly regarded track for all Americans and the world.

[Massachusetts]

13. Forty-Four Percent Of Americans Strongly Disapprove Of Bush

This (44%), is still NOT enough!

[BootinUp]

15. Bush replies: We don't need no stinking polls that support us n/t

[Hissyspit]

16. Only lunatics, delusionals, faux patriotic racketeers & fellow sociopaths

could STRONGLY APPROVE of him, so apparently the country is made up of about 22% of those groups.

[Spazito]

17. Whoa, given that Gallup overpolls repubs and underpolls dems

this is very bad news for bush, imo. It is interesting that the Gallup report, from the link, doesn't give the percentages of repubs polled versus the number of independents and democrats unless I missed it somehow.

This is all they have on Methodology:

These results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,020 adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Feb. 28 to March 1, 2006. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is ±3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

[apnu]

18. Doesn't matter anymore

He's basically a lame duck already, and the damage is done, he has served his purpose.

He's installed two nut-balls on the SCOUTS that will haunt us for 30 years due to their youth.

I honestly don't think he or Cheney will have much impact this coming November, there will be some token campaigning and some base shaking. All the rats are leaving the ship and gearing up for the '08 prez run, the further they can get form Bushco the better for them. So the worse the poll numbers are for the Simian-in-chief, the further House and Senate hopefuls have to run from him.

[Peace Patriot]

19. A false headline; should read SIXTY-PERCENT disapprove of Bush, UP 5%

in disapproval from the previous poll (Dec 05). You have to go to page 2 of the story to get this 5% jump in disapproval. By using only the "strongly disapprove" category in the headline, at first glance it seems rather low for Bush disapproval--only 44%. But that's the stat for STRONG disapproval. Combine it with "moderate disapproval" (16%) and you get 60% disapproval in total, currently; it was 55% disapproval in Dec. 05

Strong disapproval has gone up 1%; moderate disapproval has gone up 4% in the Dec 05 to Mar 06 period.

The 2nd paragraph of page 1 fails to reveal 5% jump in disapproval. It says:

"The Feb. 28 to March 1 poll finds 38% of Americans approving and 60% disapproving of Bush's job as president, within a point of his lowest approval rating and tied for his highest disapproval rating."

You have to go to p. 2 and hunt through the stats to discover this dramatic stat. The news here is not that "strong disapproval" has gone up 1%. It's that overall disapproval (moderate and strong combined) has gone up 5% in only three months.

---------------------------------

Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW! 

[Peace Patriot]

23. Note: Gallup puts their thumb on the scale for Bush--much like Diebold

and ES&S does. Whatever they SAY the stats are, you can figure it's worse for Bush and for Republicans generally than they are allowing you to know. They are always the outlier poll in favor of Bush when comparing polls on Bush. And they have been pro-Republican for decades. I automatically add in 1% to 5% omitted liberal opinion when looking at Gallup stats.

So I'd figure a whopping 65% or more disapproval of Bush, currently--depending on what other polls say, and a read on events/moods in the country. (Polling is not a science; it is an art, much dependent on WORDS, how questions are worded and what is asked, and on FEELINGS, how categories of people and individual poll subjects are chosen, and how they self-select, and who ends up answering the questions. I think we all know this, at least intuitively. For instance, by election time, people have only two choices, say Bush v Kerry. They are rarely asked: Do either of these candidates reflect your views? Would you have preferred more/different choices? --at which point, the strong antiwar feeling in the country likely would have come into play. 60% against the war--and the two choices are, a) warmonger/illegal war, and b) someone who promises to do a more efficient illegal war. The preelection pollsters somehow end up with an approx. 50/50 split, trending to Kerry. 10% of the overall 60% antiwar sentiment has gotten muffled somehow. Maybe some don't vote; maybe some are pulled on other issues. But you see what I mean--a lot depends on the question asked.)

[AbbyR]

22. So?

If my disgust and despair are showing, I'm sorry, but I just don't think it matters. If his disapproval rating was at two percent, he would still be able to get Congress to do whatever he wants. Hey, it's ok to torture. It's ok to spy on citizens in this country. It's ok to shoot a poor old guy in the face. Bush can do anything he pleases, and I think it's gotten past the point where he can be stopped.

Sorry - it's early yet. Maybe I'll cheer up later.

[MissMillie]

24. Ah... comparisons to Nixon....

all is right with the world.

[shantipriya]

27. polls

Are these polls as reliable as the Exit polls in the 2004 election? Just wondering!!!

[alcibiades_mystery]

28. Russert will report that Bush is a popular wartime President

His evidence? An informal survey of the highway overpasses between Manhattan and his posh mansion in Scarsdale. Only 3 in 10 had IMPEACH BUSH written on them, therefore...;-)

[Nothing Without Hope]

29. Gallup has a history of polls that "give" GOP politicians extra points

because of the procedure used in the polling. If this one is in that tradition, then I wonder what the real numbers are, nation-wide?

[Demeter]

30. IT Should Be 74% Disapprove

They are embezzling the rest. The remaining 26% would amply cover the richest of the rich and the dumbest of the dumb, otherwise known as Bush's base.

[BR_Parkway]

32. But at least 44% of us 'strongly disapproved' of him in Nov 05 or

even earlier.

The good part is the numbers falling about who strongly approves of him

[superconnected]

35. bet hitlers supporters, supported him no matter what too.

Bet bush will lose all but his most brain dead supporters, because he's into only selling out america now. Everythings transparents and even my republican co-workers are catching on. Okay, the die hards aren't capable, but the rest are re-thinking him.

[riona]

36. only 4 in10?

what does it take??

[CamanoCal]

37. Gallup? How about AC Nielsen?

Polls can change quickly.
The New York Times just announced " VNU, the Dutch publishing and market research company that owns owns Nielsen Media Research and trade publications like Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter, would be sold.
NYTimesArticle

Who are the purchasers?
AlpInvest Partners, the Blackstone Group, the Carlyle Group, Hellman & Friedman, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Thomas H. Lee Partners.

Carnac predicts that future polls will soon indicate most Americans prefer Pat Robertson and Billboards #1 of the Top 100 will be by Charlotte Church.

To be fair and balanced NPR will have to play all the top songs correct?

[Emillereid]

38. Sweet, sweet music! So now that the people are out in the lead, can the

Democratic leadership come out of their shells and stand up and act like a real opposition!

[wookie294]

42. Yee haw -- OUR PRESIDENT SUCKS -- yippee !!!

America is BEGINNING to see the truth! Bush is a clown!!

[Hobarticus]

43. Feh...Gallup also sez more than half favor creationism over evolution...

I dunno, I can't take one poll at face value while doubting another.