America on Bush: Strongly Disapprove

The economy and the war in Iraq have brought President Bush's approval numbers to 32% in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll -- the lowest rating of his career for this poll. Of course, with a margin of error of +/- 3%, that really means that there's been no real measurable change in his approvals since April of last year, when he scored 35%. If you're looking for good news, that's about it; Bush is actually holding pretty steady. Don't take too much solace in that, however, it also means that he's been stuck at "you suck" for about three quarters of a year.

I'll actually be working mostly off the full report (PDF), so my take on things will touch on a few issues that the press release doesn't.

Take this fun fact: not only do we think Bush sucks, most of us think he sucks really, really bad. Where the press release tells us, "Just 32 percent of Americans now approve of the way Bush is handling his job, while 66 percent disapprove," that's about all we get about it. But the actual breakdown of those responses is very telling. Respondents were asked, "Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president? Do you approve/disapprove strongly or somewhat?" The responses worked out this way:

-Strongly approve: 16%
-Somewhat approve: 16%
-Somewhat disapprove: 15%
-Strongly disapprove: 51%

See what happened there? Far and away, the largest group of voters strongly disapprove of the job Bush is doing. In fact, if we do the math, we find that those strong disapprovers make up 77% of all disapprovers. Ouch. Meanwhile, Bush's approvers are weak and evenly split. Anti-Bush sentiments are not only widely held, but strongly held...

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