30 is low

I've noticed that there haven't been a lot of Presidential prroval polls lately. Maybe this is why, they didn't want to embarrass the poor guy.

The national job approval rating of President Bush has plummeted to 30%, an all–time low in the latest Zogby International telephone poll, sinking below the 31% approval rating he dropped to in early June.

The President’s positive job rating is down from 36% in late October, in the weeks heading into the congressional midterm elections. Since then, the Democrats swept to control of both houses of Congress, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld resigned and was replaced by Robert Gates, who said the U.S. is not winning the war in Iraq. Release of the Iraq Study Group’s report calling for significant change in the way the U.S. is conducting the Iraq war came as this latest Zogby poll was in the field.

So some of this happened before the ISG released its report, and all of it happened before the President decided to ignore all of the key recommendations of the report, which should happen any day now. So I don't think we've reached the ceiling yet.

Historically speaking, this is ridiculously low, and represents a real crisis of leadership. We need a President who's at least recognized as something other than a joke for the next two years. But it's not like the American people are just hating. This guy did it to himself.

In a separate poll, people hate the war and don't think any good can come of it. Don't they understand that the era of bipartisanship is upon us and will lead us to a wonderful victory?

Americans are overwhelmingly resigned to something less than clear-cut victory in Iraq and growing numbers doubt the country will achieve a stable, democratic government no matter how the U.S. gets out, according to an AP poll.

At the same time, dissatisfaction with President Bush's handling of Iraq has climbed to an alltime high of 71 percent. The latest AP-Ipsos poll, taken as a bipartisan commission was releasing its recommendations for a new course in Iraq, found that just 27 percent of Americans approved of Bush's handling of Iraq, down from his previous low of 31 percent in November.

"Support is continuing to erode and there's no particular reason to think it can be turned back," said John Mueller, an Ohio State University political scientist and author of "War, Presidents and Public Opinion." Mueller said that once people "drop off the bandwagon, it's unlikely they'll say 'I'm for it again.' Once they're off, they're off."

Even so, Americans are not necessarily intent on getting all U.S. troops out right away, the poll indicated. The survey found strong support for a two-year timetable if that's what it took to get U.S. troops out. Seventy-one percent said they would favor a two-year timeline from now until sometime in 2008, but when people are asked instead about a six-month timeline for withdrawal that number drops to 60 percent.

I love that line, "not necessarily intent on getting US troops out," when overwhelming majorities want US troops out. Heck, even Tom Friedman, namesake of the Friedman Unit, is on board for withdrawal.

The American people managed to figure out years ago what the wise men of Washington figured out this week; that Iraq is rapidly falling apart. And the people still aren't getting any help from the media to come to that conclusion.