Oh, About Those Bad Poll Numbers...

...looks like El Presidente has more bad news, more evidence that his floor show is beginning to get booed far more often than applauded.

From Newsweek:
A NEWSWEEK poll taken one month ago showed that 41 percent of Americans approved of Bush’s handling of Iraq; 54 percent did not.

In one week that 54% has slid to 61%. A 7% drop in a week? My God, but that's precipitous. I can almost hear momma Barbara saying "George...don't stand by the edge of that chasm! Y'might slip and fall in!"

And there's this little gem:
Bush’s approval ratings have dropped to 42 percent; 51 percent of Americans say they disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job as president. Bush’s approval ratings reached a high of 88 percent in his first term, in the month after the September 11 attacks. Forty-two percent is his low.

For the mathmatically challenged, his popularity has been more than cut in half. Even his never-deserved popularity for doing well with Homeland Security--his bulwark issue really--has taken a nasty hit. The only President to ever allow a massive scale, tremendously successful terrorist attack on US soil still has 51% of Americans fooled that he's doing a good job with that issue. But that's a 6% slide from March.

And here's a doozy: 64% of Americans think the war in Iraq has made us less, rather than more safe from terrorism.

These new stats make me feel smarter all the time, as they underscore what I was saying before we went to war--that an unnecessary war in Iraq would create more terrorists and terrorism instead of reduce both.

Thing is, I'd far rather feel safer than smarter. In all honesty though, it wasn't intelligence but common sense which told me that. If a country behaves the way we have--invade a non-threatening country on false pre-text, kill tens of thousands of people there, dismantle the various systems they've spent thousands of years developing and insist they do what we tell them to--then lots and lots of people will be outraged. We re-invigorated a cause that was running on fumes before the war.

Mr. President: I hope you extend your stay in Crawford. Maybe by the time your record-setting vacation ends they'll meet you at the DC limits with tar and feathers...