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

To: sylvester80 who wrote (487903)	11/6/2003 12:24:58 AM
From: jimcav	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

No,it is not a new low, the low was 2 months ago...the approval ratings seems to have stabilized around the 50/50 mark.

To: sylvester80 who wrote (487903)	11/6/2003 12:28:05 AM
From: D.Austin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

President tripped up by 3rd-year jinx But Bush has time to rebound ----------------------------- Other presidents have seen their popularity plunge in the third year of their first term only to rally as Election Day neared. Former President Bill Clinton was at 48 percent in a Gallup Poll at the same point in his first term. He handily defeated the GOP's Bob Dole the next year. Former President George Bush, on the other hand, had a 66 percent job approval rating at the comparable moment in his presidency, buoyed by his Gulf War victory. His popularity slid more than 35 points over the next year amid concerns over a sluggish economy, and voters turned him out in favor of Clinton. "What your job approval rating is anytime in your third year doesn't predict probability of a re-election," said Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Poll. If by April of election year a president's job approval is sagging below 50 percent, "you're in trouble," Newport said. "But this is too early to tell." There's plenty of time for Bush's troubles to turn around. The economy, which grew at a promising 3.3 percent annual rate during the second quarter, added 57,000 new jobs in September. While unemployment remains at a troubling 6.1 percent, the first job growth in eight months suggests that the economy may be building enough momentum to convince voters that hard times have gone. That, in turn, could help ease the budget deficit. Bin Laden could turn up, and so could Saddam. With more than 1,400 inspectors interviewing Iraqis, combing through documents and tracking down leads, it's also possible that chemical and biological weapons could yet be found in the desert sands. And there's no way to predict how the Justice Department inquiry will cut, for better or worse. "At the moment, there's a lot of unhappy news from the president's point of view," notes Stephen Hess, a senior governmental studies fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "Many of these things truly will pass over, and the things that won't are going to elect him or defeat him." Bush retains a reservoir of goodwill among 67 percent of the public, who approve of him personally even if some question the job he's doing, according to polling Goeas has conducted. Those numbers, he said, could make it hard for Democrats to pry away support from Bush next year. "They don't really comprehend how deeply connected the president is with the bulk of the voters," Goeas said. Bush, however, faces one overarching uncertainty that runs far deeper than voters' traditional disaffection with third-year presidents: Iraq, where 317 Americans have died and thousands more have been wounded since the president ordered war last March. "Bush is on the defensive now, not with regard to the economy and not with regard to the war on terror, but certainly with regard to the war with Iraq," said Thomas Langston, professor of political science at Tulane University in New Orleans. Some have begun wondering whether Baghdad actually posed the "grave and growing" danger Bush warned of before the war, Langston said. "Was it a response to a real threat or was it a grand adventure?" asked Langston. "The public tends to think of its military as a citizen army. We don't want them to die for empire. If they die, we want it to be to protect us." If Bush is on the defensive, he's shown little outward sign of it. He has yet to display the sort of aggressive edge, for instance, that he sharpened in his primary battle against Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the 2000 campaign. Hess suggests that Bush may have mastered at least one part of the formula for presidential success: Never let them see you sweat. "This president, I think, is actually less defensive than many," said Hess, who served in two Republican administrations. "He seems to have more capacity to shrug his shoulders," Hess said. "That is terribly frustrating -- to both the press and the opposition party." ajc.com