The Gallup Poll that was released today shows that George W. Bush's disapproval rating is at its all-time high of 65%. This is exceeded among post-war U.S. Presidents only by Richard Nixon's July 1974 disapproval rating of 66%, just before Nixon resigned in disgrace.
But there is at least one former world leader whose disapproval rating exceeded even those of Messrs. Bush and Nixon: deposed Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic.
According to a 1999 poll taken by the U.S. polling firm Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, Milosevic had a disapproval rating of 70% among Serbian voters months before the successful electoral campaign to oust him from that country's presidency. Milosevic lost the presidency in autumn 2000 after the Serbian opposition united behind moderate nationalist leader Vojislav Kostunica.
Milosevic was later arrested and extradited to the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague, where he was placed on trial for crimes against humanity, violating the laws or customs of war, breaches of the Geneva Conventions, and genocide. Milosevic died in custody in The Hague in March 2006 before his trial had concluded.
Bush's disapproval rating would need to increase by only 6% to exceed that of the Butcher of Belgrade -- not a difficult feat, considering that Bush's numbers were 6% below their current levels as recently as the Gallup Poll for the 10-13 April 2006 period.
Sometime in the coming months, the number of Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan will exceed the number of people killed on 9/11. Cindy Sheehan has promised to set up Camp Casey in Crawford again when Bush takes his weeks-long vacation. Scandal will continue to erupt in Washington in the slow-motion morality play that is the DeLay/Abramoff/Cunningham train wreck.
It looks like it's going to be a cruel, cruel summer for Mr. Bush and company.
Gallup Poll, 09 May 2006
http://poll.gallup.com/...
Penn poll in Washington Post article, 11 December 2000
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...