Bush finally acknowledges he cares about the polls:
Shake-up shows Bush may be watching polls after all
By JULIE MASON
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - It's one of President Bush's favorite conceits: He does not care for polls or polling. He steers by his own inner compass, Bush says, and everything else is just Beltway blather.
Yet last week, Bush seemingly responded to a chorus of critics claiming his low public approval ratings demanded a shake-up in the West Wing.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan resigned, as did Jim Towey, director of the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. Former budget official Joshua Bolten is Bush's new chief of staff and former chief Andrew Card is gone, among other changes.
Apparently, Bush does pay attention to pundits, polls or both.
"Yes, and to members of Congress on the election trail," said Susan MacManus, a political scientist at the University of South Florida.
All seats in the House and a third in the Senate are up for grabs this year. Republicans fret that downcast public opinion about the war in Iraq and other issues will hurt their prospects for maintaining their majority in Congress.
Among the administration moves last week, Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove lost his policymaking responsibilities to focus exclusively on political strategy — which by necessity includes polling.
"They all say they don't care about polls, but they do," MacManus said. But "they don't want to look like they are doing whatever is politically expedious, rather than what is right."
Ignoring polls can be perilous. Bush dismissed polling that showed his plan to revamp Social Security was unpopular — and later was forced to concede defeat on the issue. It was the same with the Dubai ports deal, which envisioned handing over administrative control of several domestic shipping ports to a company based in the United Arab Emirates.
chron.com |
