Bushie Goes Down

A new AP poll suggests bad news for the President and his Republican friends...

AP: Conservatives Drive Bush's Approval Down

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...

...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...

In addition to the regular findings (Bush still stuck around 32-33% approval, meaning all he's got left are the hardcore believers), the poll also finds that 45% of conservatives alone disapprove of Bush and 65% of them disapprove of Congress. A majority want Democrats in power (51% for them v. 34% for Republicans) and even 31% of Republicans alone said they wanted Republicans out. Six in ten conservatives say the country is heading in the wrong direction and an overall 73% of Americans feel that way. Short of an attack on Iran and a gay marriage ban a miracle, I don't see the President and his party reversing this before November.

It took a few years, but the majority of Americans have caught up to us. I guess we all hate America now.

This was my favorite passage from the article-

"I think he's the dumbest president we've ever had," said Mark Rauzi, a conservative voter from Gillespie, Ill. "I disapprove of a lot of the stuff he's doing. This war was a big boo-boo and he won't admit he did wrong."

It was a big boo-boo indeed. And Bush's arrogant indifference to the problem speaks volumes about his presidency.

Andrew Sullivan looks at some charts showing how Bush's downfall is unprecendented.

In the face of this downfall, many conservatives all over the right-wing spectrum are attempting to distance themselves from the President. I wrote about this, if specifically in regards to the neocons, last Saturday. But on the mainstream right (ie. places like the National Review), the marginalizing of Bush to save themselves continues. He was never their guy anyway, they insist. He's a big-government conservative and not really representative of them at all, you see! Of course, when he was at 70% approval, he was the Hero War President Man-God Embodiment Of America itself whom we all had to worship and follow or else we were traitors and worse. Now that he's down at 32%? He's basically a liberal and, gosh, a fairly flawed President. As Glenn Greenwald notes, "It is only now that his approval ratings are reaching historically low levels, and it is becoming unavoidably apparent that his presidency is dying and failed, that conservatives are seeking to claim that Bush's failure is not a failure of conservatism because -- as it turns out -- Bush was really a liberal all along." This point of view is based on their unflinching belief in conservatism. You see conservatism, in their eyes, simply cannot fail. It's impossible. So if it appears to be failing, it's not their fault- it's Bush's! Because he wasn't a conservatism, at all, and therefore his failures are not those of the conservative movement. But anyone who looks at our massive record debt, the exporting of our economy to Asia, the failings of our schools and science, the energy crisis, Iraq, and a myriad of other problems know that is not the case. It wasn't just Bush's doing; he just finished the job that began during the Reagan revolution. Any pretense of a successful legacy for the Bush era of conservatism was washed away in the waters of Lake Pontchartrain last September.

My instincts tell me this running-away strategy is too inside-the-beltway to have an impact on voters. The majority of Americans (obviously) see President and the conservative movement as one and the same. Conservatives worshipped him, they told us (and well, still tell us) that the very survival of our nation depends on him being in office. For the party that is supposed to embody strength, they sure do act weak, paranoid, and scared. Well I say that a party that is so fearful that it depends on this freefallin' President as their protector deserves what they get in November.

It's time to put some grownups in charge, people for whom security is more than a slogan.

Finally, the founder of USA Today has written a must-read editorial along these lines.

Money quote-

How low can Bush's approval rating go? My hunch is it's at or near the bottom. That 34% represents mostly unshakeable far-right wingers. Like Bush, Vice President Cheney and company, they are in denial. As were the 24% in the polls who still approved of President Richard Nixon before he resigned in disgrace.

What happened to the 37% who have switched from pro-Bush to anti-Bush? They finally realized they were suckered by Bush and his buddies back then about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction, his tie to terrorists and his threat to the USA.

What he said.

Is it November yet?