twenty. nine.
I thought I had a week or two, from when I posted “31”, to mentally formulate something bemusing to say when Bush’s approval rating wandered into the 20s — and keep in mind this is “in some poll or other”. But — no… no… no… here we are:
President George W. Bush’s job approval rating has hit a new low, with 29 percent of the U.S. public saying he is doing an “excellent or pretty good job,” down from 35 percent in April, according to a Harris Interactive poll in The Wall Street Journal Online.
Now, in general I don’t think keeping running tabs on poll numbers, and in my case it really is just keeping tabs on poll lows, is good sport or productive or meaningful, but the moment we are in with this Bush Presidency is, to say the least, fascinating. It really is just one new low after another new low, and I really just stand back, jaw gaped a bit, saying “This just does not look possible.” Bush has to have a floor, doesn’t he?
The one thing I don’t understand, and this was in the fine-print of the “31” poll: apparently amongst self-described “liberals”, Bush’s approval rating sits at Seven percent. Now, I understand that the term “liberal” has various definitions — “I’m a classical Liberal in the tradition of John Locke!” — but…
Seven percent? Self described? Liberals? Approve of Bush? I thought, in the parlance of 2002 through — I guess 2008 — domestic American politics “Liberal” is practically defined by a, quote-in-quote “rabid hatred of President George W Bush”. So, I’m stuck at the: who, where, why? Is this the Chistopher Hitchens mob? Roughly 3 percent of the electorate? And … yes, I understand this non-establishment Conservative (never quite part of George W Bush’s base, but probably oughta be) attitude that “Bush’s free-spending reminds me of LBJ.” But we follow that onward and we hit the difference between LBJ’s “Guns and Butter” policy versus George W Bush’s “Guns and Butter” — um… Guns and … Buttrussing, perhaps? Not self-described Liberalism.
The approval rating of Congress remains about ten points lower. Just type that into your head, mentally. The trouble with the dynamics of Congressional polls is that they bump up agains the oh-so-vaulted “the lines are so well drawn visa vie Redistricting” rule. What I see when I take note of the “congressional race” rankings, as per the Experts:
Sure, things are flowing in the Democrats’ direction. But they’re hitting up against the lines. A slew of rankings that were “Safe Republican” have slid into the “Republican Favored” camp. A slew of rankings that were “Safe Republican” have slid into the “Leans Republican” camp.
And that’s where it stops. At least, for the moment. Those seem to be the rules of the current political winds. It does suggest something on the order of a 2006 election result of … a Republican House majority of, like, two.
UPDATE OF SORTS: Joshua Micah Marshall — the answer, as it turned out was: in Four days.