Fascinating graph of GWB’s approval rating from inauguration on, gathering together a bunch of regular polling.
Most people focus on how he’s dropped steadily over the months. (I’m sure he’s looking forward to a big boost, like his dad got in similar circumstances.) But although I guess it’s understandable, it’s a little shocking to see proof of how instantly his stock went up after 9/11. To use just one example, in the ABC poll, he went from 55 percent approval before the attacks to 92 (!) in a matter of days.
Obviously, he didn’t change from a D president to an A president overnight. It’s sad that people so desperate to believe in anything had only him to cling to.
The trend’s going in the right direction!
Yesterday I went to a town hall meeting for my Congressman (“The bottom line is I don’t trust this president and his advisors”). Lots or people expressed their helplessness at the damage the government is doing to the Constitution, to the people and to world politics. About the only solice Stark offered was that dubya is obsessed with polls, despite his public denial of their importance. Theonly way to change his policies is to get the poll numbers to fall.
Let’s start some polls, people!
Bad link for Congressman Stark above. Try this one. Sorry.
Unfortunately, when we’re “at war” (or when we attack someone, or are in some other national crisis mode), most Americans fall in line to support the President. As someone who vigorously protested the Viet Nam War (okay, an old person), I saw the American public support one bad decision and one bad president after another. I don’t really understand it, but certainly Reagan and Bush Sr. used this knee-jerk reflex to deflect attention from economic or other problems at home.
I hear that in his State of the Union Address, George W. is going to promote “faith-based initiatives” as an answer to the meeting the needs of the growing number of poor in America — clever, really — if the middle class will take care of the “lower class,” then the rich can keep getting richer.