Conservatives Drive Bush's Approval Down

We've got some new poll numbers here. From Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON - Angry conservatives are driving the approval ratings of
President Bush and the GOP-led Congress to dismal new lows, according to an AP-Ipsos poll that underscores why Republicans fear an Election Day massacre.

Six months out, the intensity of opposition to Bush and Congress has risen sharply, along with the percentage of Americans who believe the nation is on the wrong track.

The AP-Ipsos poll also suggests that Democratic voters are far more motivated than Republicans. Elections in the middle of a president's term traditionally favor the party whose core supporters are the most energized.

This week's survey of 1,000 adults, including 865 registered voters, found:

* Just 33 percent of the public approves of Bush's job performance, the lowest of his presidency. That compares with 36 percent approval in early April. Forty-five percent of self-described conservatives now disapprove of the president.

* Just one-fourth of the public approves of the job Congress is doing, a new low in AP-Ipsos polling and down 5 percentage points since last month. A whopping 65 percent of conservatives disapprove of Congress.

* A majority of Americans say they want Democrats rather than Republicans to control Congress (51 percent to 34 percent). That's the largest gap recorded by AP-Ipsos since Bush took office. Even 31 percent of conservatives want Republicans out of power.

* The souring of the nation's mood has accelerated the past three months, with the percentage of people describing the nation on the wrong track rising 12 points to a new high of 73 percent. Six of 10 conservatives say America is headed in the wrong direction.

Republican strategists said the party stands to lose control of Congress unless the environment changes unexpectedly.

"It's going to take some events of significance to turn this around," GOP pollster Whit Ayres said. "I don't think at this point you can talk your way back from those sorts of ratings."

President Bush's Republican base is starting to crumble. The American public, who identifies themselves as Republicans, are finally waking up to fact that this Republican president, and the Republican Congress, has been driving this country down a path of domestic and foreign policy ruin. When you've got six out of 10 conservatives saying America is heading in the wrong direction, you've got a huge problem on your hands. Americans--both Democrat and Republican, liberal and conservative--are no longer believing the White House spin. With a majority of Americans believing that the Democrats would do a better job in Congress than the Republicans, such a poll reading shows that the Republican Party has tied themselves completely with the president. And they are sinking with him.

So what does this mean? If events continue the way they are going, we should see the Democrats take control of one, or both houses of Congress. Americans have soured on President Bush's neoconservative, one-party rule. Democrats and Independents are certainly enraged and motivated to vote for their party candidates. Republicans may not be willing to choose a Democratic candidate in this year's elections, but could stay home in protest. The Republicans in Congress know this, and they have been trying to pander to the American voters--a prime example is the $100 gas rebate checks the Republicans dangled to the voters as a way to offset the soaring gas prices. But the $100 gas rebate check was a table scrap thrown to the voters as a cheap way to keep them happy and vote Republican for this November--the rebate check does nothing to solve the high gas prices or help reduce America's dependence on foreign oil (I don't consider the Republican proposal to drill in ANWAR as a means to reduce our dependence on oil). The immigration reform bill has been stalled by hard-lined conservative Republicans, even though the issue is a prime concern for Americans, with recent large-scale, multi-city demonstrations expressing the public's desire for immigration reform. This is a problem that the Republican-controlled Congress has been incapable of solving, even as they make statements professing their desire for an immigration reform bill. With six months left before the November midterm elections, the Republicans really don't have any legislative achievements to show the voters.