Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Srexley who wrote (198658)	11/1/2001 4:27:13 PM
From: Zoltan!	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

nationalreview.com nationalreview.com nationalreview.com

To: Srexley who wrote (198658)	11/1/2001 4:33:45 PM
From: Zoltan!	Respond to of 769667

...Consider finally the prediction that Bush v. Gore would gravely damage President Bush's and the Court's own legitimacy. That claim is subject to empirical testing. And the tests prove it false--that is, if legitimacy is regarded as a function of public opinion. By April 2001, after his first 100 days in office, President Bush enjoyed a 63 percent overall approval rating in a Washington Post-ABC News poll. In response to the question "Do you consider Bush to have been legitimately elected as president, or not?" fully 62 percent answered affirmatively. That was actually a small increase over the 55 percent who regarded Bush's election as legitimate in the immediate aftermath of the Court's decision. Bush's popularity will wax and wane like any other president's, but he does not seem to have legitimacy problems. Nor has the Court itself fared badly in the public's eye. The Pew Center for the People and the Press has been measuring the Court's approval rating since 1987. In that time, the rating has fluctuated from a low of 65 percent in 1990 to a high of 80 percent in 1994. In January 2001, the Court's favorability rating stood at 68 percent. Three months later, it stood at 72 percent. More interestingly, the Court was viewed favorably by 67 percent of Democrats. The continued high opinion of the Supreme Court is consistent with other surveys that straddle the date of the Court's action. The Gallup Organization, for example, asked people immediately after the decision how much confidence they had in the Court. Forty-nine percent of Americans had either "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence, up slightly from the 47 percent who expressed such confidence the previous June. Both the Pew and Gallup polls suggest that the partisan composition of the support changed somewhat following the Court's action, with Democratic confidence declining and Republican increasing. That shift, however, does not constitute a national legitimacy crisis, any more than conservative disaffection with the Warren Court did during the 1960s. The Court has enjoyed a remarkably stable level of public confidence and trust over a long period of time... wwics.si.edu