Bush Performance Ratings Plumment

An ABC News poll reports that "The corrosive effects of the war in Iraq and a growing disconnect on political priorities have pushed George W. Bush's performance ratings--notably on terrorism--to among the worst of his career, casting a pall over his second term and potentially over his party's prospects ahead.

For the first time, most Americans, 55 percent, say Bush has done more to divide than to unite the country. A career-high 52 percent disapprove of his job performance overall, and, in another first, a bare majority rates him unfavorably on a personal level.

The American public may be starting to stir. There have been a number of corrosive issues that have hit Americans hard--the Iraq war, the stagnating economy, the poor job market, the high gas prices. Somehow the Bush Administration has been able to deflect the American public's anger and worry away from the White House and the Republicans. This deflection has been to divert the American public's attention away from issues which hit their pocketbooks, to social issues of stem cell research, Terry Schiavo, gay marriage, abortion or culture of life. It may be easy to deflect the public to these social issues when they are feeling good about the economy and their pocketbook, but when the economy sours, the people will turn to the government for some assistance. Bush and the Republicans in Congress have failed in providing for the public's needs. While the public seems to favor Democrats over the Republicans, it is only a slight lead of 46 percent to 41 percent. However 56 percent of Americans disapprove of the job performance of both parties in Congress. As for Iraq, the American public is now realizing the mistake of getting into the war. A record 58 percent of Americans say the war was not worth fighting. Nearly two-thirds think the U.S. has gotten bogged down in Iraq and 45 percent foresee the equivalent of another Vietnam. As more Americans start to realize the full costs of the war, the questions of how Bush sold the war to the public, or most notably the Downing Street Memo, may start to reverberate within the public and force the American public to demand more answers from the White House.

One final little note in the statistics. The ABC News poll found that "The only population groups in which majorities say he's concentrating on the issues that are important to them personally are Republicans, evangelical white Protestants, conservatives and better-off Americans, those with household incomes of $75,000 a year or more." Interestingly enough, this is one of the voting blocks which provided major support for Bush's re-election, and it is one of the foremost groups to hold enormous political power within the White House. The evangelicals have always wanted to pack the Supreme Court with hard line conservatives which will vote their way on the social issues of abortion, gay marriage, and school prayer. Now the question is how long will it be for George Bush and the evangelicals to succeed in their goals as Bush's approval ratings plummet and the 2006 midterm elections start to loom.

It is starting to get interesting now.