Post/ABC News: Bush/GOP Poll Numbers Officially in Crapper

Yes, yes, the only polls that matter are the ones taken on Election Day and all that. Yet Bush's approval rating continues to tank--it's currently at 38 percent, his lowest number yet. I hope he has the guts to push it all the way down to single digits, just to see if it can be done.

And the GOP is going south, too. The Dems hold decent leads when folks are asked which party is better equipped to handle Iraq, terrorism, the economy, immigration, health care, etc.

More here.

Comments

[SR]

Kerry would have been worse!

[grylliade]

See, this proves that the people can't be trusted with the vote in 2008; we need to work now to ensure that Bush has four more years, because the people won't re-elect him. They might even elect (gasp!) a Democrat if we aren't careful!

[MP]

Will there even be gridlock if the Dems sweep Congress? I doubt it. Bush can't even spell veto (who's Vito?).

[bubba]

In 2004 Bush routinely trailed "unnamed Democrat" in the polls, yet always led when they had to actually pick a name.

One should expect the GOP to lose some seats, it is a midterm election, after all. That's what is SUPPOSED to happen. We just forget that Bush is a really good campaigner who prevented this in 2002.

However, I have trouble envisioning a sweep, when both parties have worked so hard to generate reelection rates of 98%.

[keith]

I'm convinced at this point that Bush and Co. are doing this on purpose, out of a morbid sense of curiosity over how far they can push things and still be accepted. Every day, the gang wakes up (for they all sleep in the same giant, feather bed, like the Little Rascals -- or was it the Three Stooges), and Rove says, "Let's do this today! Surely if we do this, you'll get impeached!" And then they do it, and there's some grousing, but nothing changes, and they all go to bed laughing and saying, "Man! I can't believe we got away with that! What will we do tomorrow? I know! Let's dress as pirates and throw stinky cheese at the press corps!"

[NoStar]

keith,
That last bit about throwing stinky cheese at the press corps might raise Bush's approval ratings. I know it would get my approval.

[Jim Henley]

It's all the fault of the EMM ESS EMM!

[b-psycho]

You would think that if the current numbers for the GOP in congress bear a close resemblance to the numbers the Dems drew when they lost it in 94 people would think to themselves "Gee, ya think the problem is the institution & not which party runs it?".

[Jon H]

""Gee, ya think the problem is the institution & not which party runs it?""

It's probably due to insufficient turnover. Leave them in too long and they go a bit rotten in the ethical parts.

Redistricting needs to be fixed. I think the country should be divided up into areas of equal (small) population, at each census. And redistricting should involve mathematically swapping adjacent areas, randomly, to perturb the boundaries without regard to demographics or political affiliation of the residents. Even if adjacent districts have the same population as in the prior census, there should be some perturbation of the boundary sectors to mix things up a bit. The districts would end up with the same number of residents, but they'd be different residents.

Perhaps this perturbation should even happen for every election.

Further, redistricting should require that new districts have the smallest possible perimeter length, which should prevent the most egregious cases of gerrymandering.

[thoreau]

I am confident that the Dems will do everything in their power to help the Republicans win seats this November. Democrats believe in helping the disadvantaged, and the GOP is pretty disadvantaged in the polls right now.

[Rick Barton]

Don't blame the Republicans in congress, even less the local Republicans, for the errors of Bush. Valuing liberty and considering results, Bush is easily the worst president in 40 years.

But in most areas, the Dems are far closer, and often even worse, to KIng George Bush's big government predilections than the GOP candidates are.

[happyjuggler0]

Bush should sell California to Mexico. The Democrats would lose a ton of electoral votes in the next presidential election, Californians can get drugs without any cross border smuggling, Mexicans can move there without pissing off Lou Dobbs, we could pay off a ton of the US government debt, and a ton of Bush haters can no longer be included in polls, and that ought to improve his poll numbers.

[zeiner]

Kerry would have been worse!

I'm reluctant to agree with that comment. If Kerry would've been elected and the Republicans would still control the congress, then I think that the federal government wouldn't be so reckless (at least fiscally).

I hope we get a split government in '06.