Bush's ratings tied to gas prices

[G_j]

I'm sure that this must have been posted before, but I don't get to visit very often and this struck me as pretty awful.


--so are Americans really this selfish?
'guess so


http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2006/09/bushs_ratings_t.html

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-09-20-bush-gas-prices_x.htm

For Bush, cheaper gas is premium

By Susan Page, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — When it comes to President Bush's approval rating — the number that measures his political health — one factor seems more powerful than any Oval Office address or legislative initiative.
It's the price of a gallon of gas.

Statisticians who have compared changes in gas prices and Bush's ratings through his presidency have found a steady relationship: As gas prices rise, his ratings fall. As gas prices fall, his ratings rise.

For some Americans, analysts speculate, gas prices provide a shorthand reading of the general state of the economy. Even though prices at the pump are largely outside the president's control, he gets credit when they fall — and blame when they rise.

"Gas prices are a price everybody knows because it hangs on the street in big letters," says Stuart Thiel, an economist at DePaul University in Chicago who has been tracking the trend for several years.

A statistical analysis by Doug Henwood, editor of the liberal newsletter Left Business Observer, found that an "uncanny" 78% of the movement in Bush's ratings could be correlated with changes in gas prices. Based on trends in crude oil prices, Henwood predicted last Thursday that it "wouldn't be surprising to see his approval numbers rise into the mid-40s."


..more..

[razors edge]

1. just as artificially inflated.

[Ignacio Upton]

2. Just curious....

Does anyone here know anyone who's now warming up to Bush based on gas prices alone?

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

3. MORONS!!!

Anywhere between 25-45% of the U.S. population is made up of these MORONS.

No escape, unless you leave the country.

[Nite Owl]

4. Yes it seems that they are just that

selfish. That's why the 'tax cuts' works everytime. Even if it's a few hundred bucks and they will end up paying more in state and local taxes they don't see it. They value money more than lives. Not everyone but a lot.