Gallup: Katrina Did Not Cause Bush's Decline in Polls

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003054343

A report today by Frank Newport, director of the Gallup Poll organizations, disputes conventional wisdom that the Bush Administraton's response to last year's Hurricane Katrina disaster had a significant effect on his declining popularity.

Newport writes, "a close examination of the available Gallup Poll data suggests that while the public did disapprove of how Bush handled Katrina, and the public did downgrade their perception of Bush as a strong and decisive leader, it is difficult to pinpoint a precise and lasting impact of Hurricane Katrina on Bush's overall approval ratings."

[Ian David]

1. So, Katrina's not the silver bullet in Bush's heart.

His regime is going to die the death of a thousand cuts, instead.

[fooj]

2. WTF? These f*cking people will PRINT anything, eh?

[JoFerret]

19. It means he was already up a creek

Katrina was just one more ho-hum routine bungle.

[SaveElmer]

3. That's like saying...

One can't nail down the precise cigarette that gave you lung cancer...

Obviously it had a profound affect on Bush as a weak and incompetent leader!

[AnneD]

26. Great analogy

and right on target. Who did these pollsters ask. Every African American I know says that was the last straw. Many of us living on the Gulf Coast think that was a tipping point. Many of my overseas friends were shocked that our great and powerful government would bungle a response and let it's own citizens die such needless and horrible deaths.
I call bull shit.

[rusty charly]

4. "a close examination of the available Gallup Poll data"

only happens when they need some spin.

[Cha]

17. Zactly! I think cw is right..it was Katrina

that put the silver bullet where bush's heart shoulda been.

[wisteria]

5. The Gallop polls seem to have become a tool of this administration.

I ignore them.

[Warpy]

6. The hell it didn't, George

As the enormity of the disaster and the massive incompetence of all GOP appointees sank in over the following two weeks, those poll numbers started to plummet. The overall trend had been easing downward. After Katrina, they dropped like a rock.

I don't know who George Gallup thinks he's kidding.

[w4rma]

7. Gallup got bought out by some group that has been running on the momentum

of the Gallup name for a few years now.

The *only* thing I somewhat trust from Gallup is the raw numbers they produce. I ignore their "analysis" of those numbers.

[liberal N proud]

8. Just because they say it's so doesn't change the fact that it happened

[Ignacio Upton]

9. Well, I remember Bush's job approval started dropping below 40%

In the weeks and month after Katrina. And it wasn't just Katrina that has hurt him. Social Security privatization and Terri Schiavo also took wind out of his sails. And then after Katrina, he was getting attacked by both the left and (paleo-conservative) right for selling our ports to Dubai, and by the paleo-conservatives (ie. Lou Dobbs) for illegal immigration. The reason why Bush's job approval has been so low is because a chunk of right-leaning moderates and old-time conservatives are breaking away. Even if they don't vote for a Democrat, having them apathetic is still good.

[Barrett808]

10. Judge for yourself:

http://www.pollkatz.homestead.com

[Bill McBlueState]

22. I'd have to agree with Gallup based on this

There's no sharp drop in late 2005; it's just the continuation of a downward trend that began right after election 2004.

[City Lights]

11. I'm surprised he can pull his lips off Queen George's ass

long enough to speak. :puke:

[gratuitous]

12. Maybe not THE reason, but . . .

Katrina and its aftermath made the Bush administration look as inept and ineffectual as anything before had, with the big difference being that the popular media actually took a side against Bush. Anderson Cooper of CNN, along with a number of other folks, had photos and footage to back up their words, and the squirrelly behavior of the Bushistas was thrown into sharp relief (for once) against the reality on the ground.

And, just as once you see something the trick behind the magic, you're no longer quite so impressed with the illusionist, so too a lot of people who had formerly given the Bush administration the benefit of the doubt suddenly couldn't see anything but the strings controlling the puppets and peek behind the carefully-placed backdrops at the squalor they were hiding all along. Katrina may not have in and of itself been the reason for Bush's poll numbers to finally head south permanently, but once the public had seen what a bunch of fakers were squatting in the White House, they saw through the illusions ever after.

[depakid]

13. Gallup- LOL

The Thomas Kincaid of polling outfits....

[Anakin Skywalker]

14. Double Post. Self-Deleted

[Anakin Skywalker]

15. It Didn't. Bush Just Plain Sucks!

Bush has sucked from the very beginning. He sucks today and will continue to suck well into his old age like his sucky mommy and daddy.

[ryanmuegge]

16. I think the Republican Echo Chamber did a good job

of muddying the issue with regard to the response, so it didn't affect public opinion the way it should have.

[bullimiami]

18. that displays a serious lack of analytical thinking ability.

or maybe he doesnt think at all before he starts writing.

[lpbk2713]

20. I suppose it's possible.

People might have caught on to the fact that he is just a stupid dickhead.

[petronius]

21. So they're saying it's more the overall record of incompetence and

corruption, rather than any single event, that led to more Americans waking up to reality?

[sallyseven]

23. Maybe it didn't cause it to drop

but that the overall incompetence of the bush regime just collapsed the poll numbers. I think it was one more stupid thing and the people got fed up.

[krispos42]

24. Bush has a 2% approval rating with 12% of the population

That would be with African-Americans.

I don't know if it is still that way, but I remember that shortly after Katrina it was that rock bottom.

[demo dutch]

25. Gallup??? LOL!!! Gallup is owned by a man named James Clifton

contributor to GOP candidates and, generally has a GOP bias.

http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Gallup.html

[jsamuel]

27. It's true, Bush hit 36% in August in most polls (before Katrina) think...

Sheehan/Iraq Summer 2005

[No Exit]

28. Maybe it was just reality that caused it...

the reality that he is a worthless piece of shit.

It sank in, see.