cross-posted to The Next Hurrah with slight modification
There are times the CW is dead wrong, of course, but it never stops conventional wisdom from forming. Who would've thought a simple thing like an autopy would put Frist and the wingnuts so much on the defensive? And who would've thought that the American people would figure out what was really going on in Iraq?
Bush's Support On Major Issues Tumbles In Poll
Increasingly pessimistic about Iraq and skeptical about President Bush's plan for Social Security, Americans are in a season of political discontent, giving Mr. Bush one of the lowest approval ratings of his presidency and even lower marks to Congress, according to the New York Times/CBS News Poll.
And just to put things in perspective, here are some other recent polls to go with it (previous in parentheses):
CBS/NY Times June 10-15
Bush Approve 42 (46) Disapprove 51 (48)
Fox News June 14-15
Bush Approve 48 (47) Disapprove 43 (43)
Pew June 8-12
Bush Approve 42 (43) Disapprove 49 (50)
AP/Ipsos June 6-8
Bush Approve 43 (47) Disapprove 55 (51)
Gallup June 6-8
Bush Approve 47 (48) Disapprove 49 (47)
ABC News/Washington Post Poll June 2-5
Bush Approve 48 (47) Disapprove 52 (50)
Iraq and the economy are eating into Bush's support (except on Fox, where a discouraging word is never uttered). And the Schiavo autopsy is revealing the wingnuts to be what they are.
Oh, and here's
Howie Kurtz:
Poll after poll brings bad news for Bush -- we're now at the point where only a good-news survey would be surprising. ...
"Still, Mr. Bush continued to have majority support for his handling of the war on terrorism -- 52 percent -- one of his strengths throughout his 2004 re-election campaign."
Fifty-two percent is not exactly overwhelming, though.
Oh, and 37 percent approve of Bush's handling of Iraq.
Chris Matthews (on Imus this am) delivered another piece of DC conventional wisdom... the sane conservatives like John McCain and Rudy Guiliani will rule the political world, as the wingnuts like Dean and Frist scare off the 'people' and fade. Matthews, who never met a Republican he didn't like, and who was so wrong on the war, and was so wrong on George W Bush, really needs to to take a Punditry recertification test. This is the guy who arrived in Iowa during the Dem primaries and announced on the air words to the effect of 'I had no idea Bush was so unpopular with Democrats out here'. These are the folks who give a bad name to mainstream media, who don't have a clue as to what outside-the-beltway Americans really think.
Matthews, who described (frequent Imus guest) J.D. Hayworth R-AZ as a 'regular Republican who doesn't know what he thinks until he gets his marching orders', promises to promote McCain and the 'centrists' (actually, they're conservatives in the traditional sense) on his media vehicles this week. But he may be surprised to find that the Republican party of JD Hayworth doesn't particularly care for mavericks, and that McCain's support of Bush may not be an asset to either man in the end.
Here in New England, not (yet) representative of the rest of the country, McCain has always been popular and Bush has never been the hot ticket he's been elsewhere. But then again, we know the Bushes. And we know how we feel about the war in Iraq. The two go together hand in glove. And according to the polls, New England may not be that far out of the mainstream, after all.