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: HPilot who wrote (707402)	10/14/2005 11:38:46 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

Bush's ratings sink amid public pessimism By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent Thu Oct 13, 5:16 PM ET news.yahoo.com Despite a drive by President George W. Bush to rebuild support and restore public confidence, three new opinion polls show his approval ratings sinking ever deeper in a sea of political troubles and pessimism. Bush's approval rating dropped below 40 percent for the first time in polls by the Pew Research Center and NBC News/Wall Street Journal, and fewer than 30 percent of Americans believed the country was on the right track amid violence in Iraq, high gas prices and growing budget deficits. A new Fox News poll also showed Bush's approval rating dropping to its lowest level in that survey, falling to 40 percent from 45 percent since late September. "Bush's numbers are going from bad to worse, and there is no silver lining," said Pew pollster Andrew Kohut. "People just see more and more bad news everywhere and they don't see a way out." The sinking poll numbers, which have threatened key elements of Bush's second-term agenda and made Republicans increasingly nervous about next year's midterm elections, followed weeks of renewed activity designed to show Bush in command. The president has made eight trips to the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast since early September, delivered major speeches on fighting terrorism and rebuilding New Orleans and gave a national television interview. None of it eased public pessimism on a range of issues, including the economy and the war in Iraq, or turned around Bush's already low approval ratings, pollsters said. The NBC poll, released on Wednesday, found 69 percent thought the worst was ahead on gas prices and only 28 percent thought the country was headed in the right direction. The Pew poll, released on Thursday, found 29 percent satisfied with the country's direction. For the first time, a majority of Americans thought the Iraq war was not going well and solid majorities said Bush had made the economy and budget deficit worse. "What people don't like is uncertainty," said independent pollster Dick Bennett of American Research Group. "What they really don't like is a president who doesn't acknowledge uncertainty and deal with it. Americans can take bad news, but they want a way out of it and they don't see that from Bush." OPPORTUNITY FOR DEMOCRATS? Bush's weakened political stance has forced him to abandon at least temporarily his push for a Social Security overhaul and threatens efforts to extend his tax cuts. The poll results also come as Bush faces a conservative revolt over his nomination of Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Republicans deal with the indictment of House leader Tom DeLay for money laundering as well as a probe of Senate Republican leader Bill Frist's stock deals. Democrats point to the spreading scandals, including White House political adviser Karl Rove's appearances before a grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA operative's identity, as evidence Republicans have been corrupted by power. The NBC poll found Americans preferred Democratic control of the U.S. Congress to Republican leadership by 48 percent to 39 percent, helping fuel rising Democratic hopes for 2006. Democrats need to gain 15 House seats and six Senate seats to regain control of the two chambers. Nearly all polls, including the NBC and Pew surveys, found Bush's approval ratings among his Republican base holding strong at more than 80 percent. "This is an opportunity for Democrats, but we haven't seen any evidence yet that they are going to make big gains," said Karlyn Bowman, a poll analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. With 13 months to go until the November 2006 congressional elections, Republican strategists say there is plenty of time to recover. Bush's approval rating is still better than the lowest rating for any president in the past 40 years. "Not only is it not unusual for a president to have an approval rating at 38 percent, it's almost predictable," Republican consultant Whit Ayres said. "Every president has rough patches, it says nothing about the ultimate historical judgment." He said an improvement in gas prices, a dip in violence in Iraq or other good news for Bush could start to brighten his political picture quickly. "There is no question the country is in a funk and some kind of event will have to turn it around," he said. Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Copyright © 2005 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

To: HPilot who wrote (707402)	10/14/2005 11:41:00 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

Poll: Bush Presidency Judged Unsuccessful By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer news.yahoo.com For the first time, more people say George W. Bush's presidency will be judged as unsuccessful than say it will be seen as a success, a poll finds. Forty-one percent of respondents said Bush's presidency will be seen as unsuccessful in the long run, while 26 percent said the opposite. Thirty-five percent said it was too early to tell, according to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. In January, 36 percent said successful and 27 percent said unsuccessful. The increasing pessimism about Bush's long-term prospects comes at a time when many polls have found the public increasingly is negative about Bush's performance and the direction of the country. Seven in 10 said they want the next president to offer policies and programs that are different from the Bush administration's. Only half said they wanted the next president to offer different policies in 2000, at the end of the Clinton presidency. By a 2-1 margin, people said the Bush administration has had a negative impact on politics and the way government works. People were inclined to say Bush's policies have made things worse on a wide range of issues such as the federal budget deficit, the gap between rich and poor, health care, the economy, relations with U.S. allies, the tax system and education. By 47 percent to 30 percent, those surveyed said Bush has improved the situation with national security. Republicans give the president mixed reviews in many of these areas. Almost half of Republicans said Bush's policies have made the deficit worse and just 12 percent say he has improved that situation. The poll of 1,500 adults was taken Oct. 6-10 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. ___ On the Net: Pew Research Center: people-press.org Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Copyright © 2005 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.