President Bush’s job approval rating has fallen to just 31 percent, according to the new NEWSWEEK Poll. Bill Clinton’s lowest rating during his presidency was 36 percent; Bush’s father’s was 29 percent, and Ronald Reagan’s was 35 percent. Jimmy Carter’s and Richard Nixon’s lows were 28 and 23 percent, respectively. (Just 24 approve of outgoing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s job performance, and 31 percent approve of Vice President Dick Cheney’s.)
Worst of all, most Americans are writing off the rest of Bush’s presidency; two thirds (66 percent) believe he will be unable to get much done, up from 56 percent in a mid-October poll; only 32 percent believe he can be effective. That’s unfortunate since 63 percent of Americans say they’re dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country; just 29 percent are satisfied, reports the poll of 1,006 adults conducted Thursday and Friday nights.
But the new poll carries sobering news for Democrats, too, still on their postvictory high. Just about everyone believes the Republicans lost the 2006 midterms more than the Democrats won it. Presented with a list of factors that may have contributed to the Democrats’ success, 85 percent of Americans said the “major reason” was disapproval of the administration’s handling of the war in Iraq, 71 percent said disapproval of Bush’s overall job performance, 67 percent cited dissatisfaction with how Republicans have handled government spending and the deficit, 63 percent said disapproval of the overall performance of Republicans in Congress, 61 percent said Democrats’ ideas and proposals for changing course in Iraq. Tellingly, just 27 percent said a major reason the Democrats won was because they had better candidates.
This is a fascinating post-election poll here. First, President Bush's job approval ratings are still dropping--even after the Republicans were soundly defeated in the congressional midterms, and the past week's bipartisanship spin between President Bush and the incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. You have to wonder if the American public believes that the Bush administration's talk of bipartisanship is just that--spin. Bush tried to resubmit John Bolton's nomination to the Senate, and Bolton's nomination was struck down by outgoing Senator Lincoln Chafee. President Bush also wants to see the Terrorist Surveillance Act passed by the Republican-controlled Congress, even as the Democrats are opposed to it. The Bush administration has refused to compromise on the Democrat's plan to allow the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare recipients from the drug companies. Is it no wonder that Bush's job approval ratings are still falling?
Then there is the overall pessimism that Americans have regarding the Bush administration--two thirds (66 percent) believes he will be unable to get much done, up from 56 percent in a mid-October poll; only 32 percent believe he can be effective. That’s unfortunate since 63 percent of Americans say they’re dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country; just 29 percent are satisfied....
What is interesting here is how the number of Americans who believe that Bush will be unable to get anything done in the last two years is just three percentage points higher than the number of Americans who are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country. Even the percentage of Americans who believe that Bush are effective verses the number of Americans who are satisfied are also separated by three percentage points. It is almost a mirror image of American's public opinion regarding the Bush administration's effectiveness over the next two years with that of American's views on the country's prognosis.
The Newsweek poll has some interesting numbers for the Democrats to chew on. First and foremost is that the Democrats won control of Congress not because of the Democrats agenda, opinions, or better candidates. The Democrats won because of American's anger and disgust with the Bush administration's mishandling of the war in Iraq, the Republican's failure to control spending, and the Republicans performance in Congress--which could refer to the Republican scandals and corruption. This election was a referendum on the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress' job performance. This is certainly a sobering lesson for the Democrats to remember as they take control of Congress for the next two years--Americans are giving the Democrats a chance to control a branch of the government. If the Democrats fail to provide policy alternatives to solve the problems of Iraq (perhaps the most important issue), health care, spending, immigration, and the minimum wage, then there is a possibility that the Democrat's control of Congress may become short-lived.
And finally, there are the American’s views on the Democratic agenda. This is also especially interesting:
And there’s massive support for much of the Democratic Congress’s presumed agenda. For instance, 75 percent of Americans say allowing the government to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices for seniors should be a “top priority,” including 67 percent of Republicans. Increasing the minimum wage comes next (68 percent) on the public’s list, followed by investigating government contracts in Iraq (60 percent).
There’s less support for rolling back Bush’s tax cuts: 40 percent say that should be a top priority and 24 percent say it shouldn’t be done at all. And since the election, Americans have become slightly less interested in investigating impropriety and wrongdoing by members of Congress. The number of Americans who think this should be a top priority has dropped from 62 to 55 percent.
Overall, however, the public wants Congress and the president to put Iraq and national security before domestic issues like the economy and health care, by a margin of 51 to 33 percent. Fifteen percent say they should be equal priorities. But the public is not overly optimistic: 54 percent of Americans say partisan bickering will likely prevent important work from getting done, while 40 percent say the two sides will be able to work together.
So far, the American public is supporting the Democratic agenda. An especially telling number is that a majority of both Democrats and Republicans support the Democratic plan to allow the federal government to negotiate with the drug manufacturers for lower drug prices for seniors. Remember the Bush administration's response to this issue? Here it is:
WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 — The Bush administration said on Sunday that it would strenuously oppose one of the Democrats’ top priorities for the new Congress: legislation authorizing the government to negotiate with drug companies to secure lower drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries.
In an interview, Michael O. Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, said he saw no prospect of compromise on the issue.
“In politics,” Mr. Leavitt said, “most specific issues like this are a disguise for a larger difference. Government negotiation of drug prices does not work unless you have a program completely run by the government. Democrats say they want the government to negotiate prices. What they really want is government-run health care.”
Federal price negotiations would unravel the whole structure of the Medicare drug benefit, which relies on competing private plans, Mr. Leavitt said.
So even here, the Bush administration is going against the American public's wishes. You also have to wonder what the administration's views are on the minimum wage increase, the congressional oversight investigations, or even the Iraq war. Either way, we're in for two years of partisan bickering between the Democrats in Congress, and the Bush White House. Of course, the American people understand that--54 percent of Americans say partisan bickering will likely prevent important work from getting done, while 40 percent say the two sides will be able to work together.
It is going to be an interesting two years.
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