Americans don't like President Bush personally much anymore, either
New polls released say that the American public are no longer simply displeased with the job that President Bush is doing, but that they are starting to dislike the man himself.
This is an alarming verdict for the Republicans as, were this trend to continue, the President will lose the benefit of the doubt and, with it, the ability to steer his government.
The Presidents supporters, most notably the soon to be indicted Karl Rove, continue to insist that it's the polls that are wrong.
"The American people like this president," White House political guru Karl Rove said last week. "People like him. They respect him. He's somebody they feel a connection with. But they're just sour right now on the war. And that's the way it's going to be. And we will fight our way through."
Rove said he based his confidence on a private poll done for the Republican National Committee that showed Bush's personal approval rating higher than 60 percent, far above his job approval. "The polls I believe are the polls that get run through the RNC," Rove said. "I look at the polls all the time."
The Republican National Committee wouldn't release a copy of the poll. Spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said she couldn't explain why public polls show a decline in Bush's personal popularity except to say that, "you can ask a poll question four different ways and get four different answers."
I know that this administration have always despised "reality based" perceptions, claiming that they make reality through power, but we are simply engaging in sophistry here.
Back here on planet Earth reality looks a little different:
Six public polls in recent weeks showed the opposite of Rove's account - that Bush's personal approval ratings have dropped since he was re-elected in 2004:
-A recent Gallup poll for USA Today showed that 39 percent had a favorable opinion of Bush, while 60 percent had an unfavorable opinion. In mid-November 2004, 60 percent had a favorable opinion and 39 percent unfavorable.
-Pollster John Zogby found 42 percent with a favorable opinion and 55 percent unfavorable. In November 2004, it was 58 percent favorable, 40 percent unfavorable.
-A poll for CBS and the New York Times showed that 29 percent had a favorable opinion of Bush, while 55 percent had an unfavorable opinion.
"The president's public perception problem is not only about his dismal job performance, but also his striking lack of personal favorability," said Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg.
Personal favorability can encompass many things in the minds of voters: character, respect, warmth, kinship, even whether a voter would want to have a beer with a politician. Or in the case of the teetotaling Bush, a soda.
Bush has lost ground on most of those measures.
So now we have both Laura Bush and Karl Rove saying that the problem is not the President, but the polls.
It would be laughable were they not actually being serious. The US is being governed by a group of people who have no contact with reality. When one considers the amount of power in these people's hands, that's quite scary.
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