KR: Americans don't like President Bush personally much anymore, either

Americans don't like President Bush personally much anymore, either

By Steven Thomma
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - It's not just the way he's doing his job. Americans apparently don't like President Bush personally much anymore, either.

A drop in his personal popularity, as measured by several public polls, has shadowed the decline in Bush's job-approval ratings and weakened his political armor when he and his party need it most.

Losing that political protection - dubbed "Teflon" when Ronald Reagan had it - is costing Bush what the late political scientist Richard Neustadt called the "leeway" to survive hard times and maintain his grip on the nation's agenda. Without it, Bush is a more tempting target for political enemies. And members of his party in Congress are less inclined to stand with him.

"When he loses likeability, the president loses the benefit of the doubt," said Dennis Goldford, a political scientist at Drake University in Iowa. "That makes it much harder for him to steer."

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/14622000.htm

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/14622000.htm

...REALLY go into glorification mode!

HIS EYES AND BRAIN ARE SOMEWHAT VACANT

======

he always made me cringe(with the exception of the brief post-9/11 period).

:eyes: They really DO love bush, just like everyone loves to watch the monkey cages at the zoo. They're just "unsettled" at the moment, or so Jojo the Monkey Boy says. :eyes: Unsettled my ass. Disappointed, ashamed, irate, embarrased.......but certainly NOT "unsettled". :grr:

To succeed in politics today, you need either gravitas or likeability. If Georgie's likeability is deserting him, he's sunk. He has all the gravitas of a smoked kipper.

ever considered him "likable." I detested him from my first awareness of him. He came across to me immediately as cocky, arrogant, insincere, stupid, and fratboyesque. I'm sorry to say my first impression was only reaffirmed over the years.

but then, an awful lot of American politicians come across like that to me (I'm a Brit) so I figured there must be somethign likeable about him that I'm not seeing.

inner voice.

about him, it's just that there is nothing likeable about most of the people who find him charming either, so they see their own reflection in him and are in denial about how crude, insincere and stupid he really is.

Ted Bundy.

Ted Bundy had sort of a slightly-disheveled frat-boy look, but he did not have Dubya's beady snake eyes, his simian expressions, and CONSTANT smirk.

Ya think?

You could be on to something. But I don't think Bush is clever enough to do serial murder and get away with it as long as Bundy did

SMIRK?!
or maybe those ever-so-charming forehead wrinkles, or the heavy crust on the face

He laughs like every cartoon villian that I knew as a kid.

:rofl:

Rove tells his corporate media minions to tell everyone over and over that people like him, so that people will like him. The pompous ass has always made my skin crawl.

But self-depreciating humour and teh all-important one-of-us factor always goes over well with the masses. He certainly came across as more likeable than Gore who, much as I liked his policies, came across as a stiff in his media appearences (and let's not get into the various slanders directed at him).

You believed these other things about him because the media TOLD you he had self-depreciating humor and was one-of-us. That is called propaganda.

From the moment I became aware of "w" I could not fathom his appeal to anybody.

Let alone think he was capable of being President.

I am constantly shocked that the collective wisdom of the American People has reached such a low level.

This man is an idiot and it was apparent to anybody who was paying attention a long time ago.

But I always thought if the republicans get this idiot elected, it will be the end of the republicans for fifty years. I hope I was right about that one.

Most repugs look like undertakers or slumlords. They look for someone who is not too ugly who is also stupid enough to be manipulated and be grateful that they reached a high office. Thus Reagan, Quayle, George Allen, etc. But they really picked a doozy with this sociopath!

When I see a pic of the high-ranking govt officials...especially when it's a group shot, and they're all dressed up in their bazillion dollar suits and shoes and carefully coiffed toupees I can't help thinking:
"Dear GODS, what an ugly bunch of old men we have running the country...
and they all look alike."
:puke:
Ya think that they call each other every night..."What are YOU wearing tomorrow?"
:tinfoilhat:

The one's still supporting him would support him if he was discovered standing over a bullet-ridden corpse, holding a smoking pistol and shouting "I'm glad I killed the bastard". Reality is secondary to them. It's a cult of personality that loves the man as much, if not more, than it hated Clinton. We all know how bad Reagan was for the country but he's still held as a messiah to Republicans and there's even a movement to get him added to Mt. Rushmore.

When Bush dropped below 40%, there were many who were saying the same thing about the remaining 38/39% as they are today about the remaining 29%. Heck, I said he could rape a child live on national TV and many Freepers would excuse it...

W has always seemed mean to me.

A fool is much tolerated and even beloved by the people. That is until he sets the village on fire.

anyone would want him as a leader.

I've never been able to take advice from arrogant sneaky ignorant disrespectful narrow minded socially connected fake Christian cheerleaders.

In other words - Republican heroes.

It's unbelievable that he was ever put in position of power. How could the republican party be so interested in puritanizing America that they could reverse the civil progress of our founding fathers. It's like one DUer said one day.

The GOP building a bridge to the 14th Century!

around, just so they feel better about themselves. I think that was the effect Bush had on voters. He's more stupid and clownish that most people so they felt comfortable with him, he made their own short-comings seem trivial in comparison.
The short-bus pResident everyone wanted to have a beer with has turned out to be just what they bargained for, an empty suit. However, in light of the world's screwed up situation (mostly caused by the simian frat boy himself) most people have changed their perspective of what they want their pResident to be and project. Bush just doesn't fit the bill anymore. Americans realize that he's in WAY over his head here and that they made a mistake when turning the 2000 election into a popularity contest. Buyer's remorse has finally set in, big time, and the American people have had enough of the "likable guy next door" and want a REAL President to lead their country. That will never happen as long as the chimp is in charge. Time to impeach, NOW!

i love that description.

i don't like feeling superior to the president of the US. i want brilliance, dignity,compassion and a certain amount of aloofness......my ideal president should be consumed with his job of making this country great.

this idiot has no passion.

... wears off pretty quickly when parents are sobbing over their sons and daughters coming home in bodybags ... or people are trapped or drowning in New Orleans because the "leader" couldn't be bothered taking time off from his summer vacation to make sure preparations were in place.

Are Americans so fragile that they will feel inferior if someone intelligent and competent is running the government? Maybe some of Bush's devotees feel bent out of shape if they meet the kind of person you describe, adriennui -- but the vast majority of people seem to feel like you do, and have certain expectations.

I just LOVE to be talked down to by someone who has not had to apply himself intellectually to anything in his life. It's wonderful to understand a situation, then have a Fortunate Son come along and ENUNCIATE (as if I'm just misunderstanding him) and repeat himself over and over so that I understand that not only do I disagree with him, he's also a fucking imbecile.

Makes me crazy when he says that. What he's really saying is "I know you have concerns about <whatever> but I don't give a flying fuck 'cause I'm the Decider."

Edited for typo.

his next statement always proves that he DOESN'T understand. It's his way of dismissing an idea.

...he'd talk a mile a minute on whatever subject seized his teeny-tiny brain at the moment, not making two words of sense, getting his fact all bass-ackwards, and whenever anyone tried to correct him, he'd yelp "but you don't underSTAAAAND!"

Moran.

I just LOVE to be talked down to by someone who has not had to apply himself intellectually to anything in his life. It's wonderful to understand a situation, then have a Fortunate Son come along and ENUNCIATE (as if I'm just misunderstanding him) and repeat himself over and over so that I understand that not only do I disagree with him, he's also a fucking imbecile.

For articulating that. It absolutely pushes me over the edge to have this moran who can't even pronounce nuclear condescend to me with the precise enunciation.

However, a friend of mine who is particularly psychologically astute advised me that when he does that, he is mimicking his handlers. That's how they treat him and that's how he treats the American public. He's such an uncreative dolt that it would not occur to him to do otherwise.




Cher

Oh... hold on... I don't have an ass.

And he usually is incorrect. But that doesn't stop him from saying it over and over again.

http://www.dubyaspeak.com/repeatoffender.phtml?offense=battlefront

He does resemble the contents of this can

They are my favorite! I love them and probably keep the market for kippers alive in Texas.

My mom's Canadian so that explains my particular taste in snacks.

Bush is not as good as King Oscar's Kipper Snacks!

And they come from Black's Harbour. or as we say Black's




Brunswick Kippered Snacks, 3.53 oz

he waz a fine fisherman too

ooops

Coke Roberts talked at length on NPR about the Bush "charm offensive" during Campaign2000. She said he would be effective as POTUS because he'll be able to get things done with "charm." :puke:

Also, where are the nicknames? Bush gave everyone nicknames because he was such a, well, "down to earth"-kind of guy, the kind of guy more Americans would rather have a beer with than Al Gore.

Kippers and eggs, but no Bush, thank you.

But all kidding aside, you are spot-on. Especially in this case, with this jackass, who built his alleged "political capital" on being the fun, nice, likeable, real, just-like-me guy. The guy you could go have a beer with. Which always perplexed me. Why should we be measuring a man's worth or potential worthiness to be president, on whether he's the kind of guy you could go have a beer with. Like that should be among the criteria! Especially when THIS so-n-so is presumably a "recovering" alcoholic. Seems to me that's the kind of person you should NOT be wanting to go have a beer with. Besides, I know LOTS of people who'd be fun sharing cocktails. That doesn't mean I regard any of them as presidential material (they themselves wouldn't, either).

That IS all he had. And like everything else he touches, from viable Texas oil companies to the national budget surplus, from our positive standing in the world to the might of our military, from the quality of our word to our national security, he's squandered that, too. Likeability - bye-bye. And as for gravitas, hell, he couldn't even spell OR define it, no less display any.

Welcome to DU! Glad you're part of the Great Enlightenment.

So, now that you're here, help us...

Visualize IMPEACHMENT!!!
And then go DO something about it.

off of Rove and/or Cheney.:scared: I would find it hard to believe he's 'working it' on his own, though the result demonstrates that. So, who's 'helping' him?

The security people called him "The Package."

Looks like the wrapper's fallen off "The Package."




Cher

...he's crude, rude, mean, lacking compassion, arrogant, nasty, foul-mouthed, bad finger-wagging, and dumb, to boot. So what's there to like?

...mommy (holding up 'Barney') when the going gets tough for real.

BWEEURRk

Unpleasant, even dangerous ones. He can't seem to help himself -- if there's a chance to humiliate somebody or issue "punishment" for some slight (real or imagined), Bush will do that. Even if people are watching him.

""But in one case, he can't resist having a little fun anyway. "Can you drink this?" asks a guest reaching down to the water. "Sure," says Bush, watching the fellow taking a handful to his mouth. "Except for the cow s___." The spit-take follows in perfect order."

http://www.time.com/time/poy2000/mag/ranch.html

"Dubya picks up a football. "Bush has a pretty good arm," reporter Tucker Carlson writes, "except that all the passes appear to be aimed at the gaggle of reporters watching him from the sidelines. A Fox News correspondent looks up just in time to save his pearly caps from a particularly clean spiral. Bush laughs and cocks his arm again. A newspaper reporter turns out to have slower reflexes. The ball hits him square in the chest, almost knocking him down. Bush throws another, even harder. This one beans a cameraman. It's clear that Bush is doing this on purpose....Bush is trotting around the grass with a demented look on his face.""

http://www.bushwatch.com/bushclean.htm



Every single person I've known who's exhibited this trait has, sooner or later, done something really horrible that has caused great harm or inconvenience to those around them. It's not too hard to distinguish harmless, fun pranks from mean-spirited put-downs -- Bush pegged my warning meter, early on.

...‏Asked why his disapproval rating was now one point lower than U.S. ‏‏President Richard Nixon in 1974 shortly before Nixon resigned the presidency ‏‏in the wake of the Watergate scandal...

:) Not many people like him.

like paying off the scandalous and almost incomprehensible debt this junta is leaving behind? Do they even think about it? Do they think about how our country will be crushed by this staggering debt? Trillions to be paid off by us and Americans yet to be born. Yeah, there's so much to like: the fascism, the corruption, the spitting on the Constitution, the assault on civil liberties, Bush's personal arrogance & smirking, the tragic quagmire Wars, the ruinous financial mismanagement, Abu Ghraib & Gitmo --- this "likable" guy is the worst President ever and a miserable excuse for a human being. And we still have 2 more years! Who knows what shit he'll pull before he's done.

rolls,

zero plan to ever get us free doctors.

{the throwing into the street, was by chopping the budget for section eight housing vouchers, the adding to hunger rolls was by chopping funds to Food Stamps}

but the Corrupt Conservative...

It took me about two seconds when I saw him for the first time to peg him as trouble. And he proved me right far beyond my worst fears at that time.

His father was a joke of an empty suit. Sadly for this country, the people forgot why they cut his term short in 1992, in dealing with his wretched offspring.

I could never understand that in the first place, I find him completely obnoxious and repulsive. :puke:

you will not be able to find ANYONE who voted for *.

Just try and finding someone who voted for Nixon. Can't be done. NO ONE VOTED FOR NIXON....

I grew up in Idaho, one of the most Republican states in the country, and you couldn't find a Nixon voter in this state within TWO years after his resignation.

No, Bush's name is SHIT now for nearly 80% of the country. The day after this moron leaves office, his idiot followers will deny him three times before the cock crows.

and say "Nixon was MY president..."

That's HORRIFYING.

For awhile there I was feeling pretty miserable that I lived in a country where people actually supported this guy. I almost felt ashamed to be an American. It's nice to see people are seeing the light. Not that it does much good now, but I take what I can get these days.

Just one look, that's all it took!

He's an arrogant, self important, blustering fool. I never understood why anyone did like him. He has no real strength, he's just a bully. Even his "humorous" remarks depend on belittling others.

It took that awful VOICE...

...we just switch off his voice and give Shrub the "What's Up Tiger Lily" treatment. :evilgrin:

Anybody that ever bought his act should have their credit cards and car keys taken away and forced to use public transportation.

that he was born with a silver spoon up his nose.

She said that he is charming and pleasant to be around.

I guess she likes Silverspoon Sociopaths.

While I love your "silver spoon up his nose" description of the Shrub, Governor Richard's comment was actually about his dad, GHWB, and it was "...born with a silver foot in his mouth". It was during the same period that Jim Hightower said another of my favorites (of GHWBush), "He was born on third, and thinks he hit a triple!"

He has always come off as an over privileged elitist with no idea how ordinary working Americans live. It has been MANY generations since anyone in his family has had to depend upon a paycheck to survive.

Never wanted to have a "beer" with him either.

He always struck me as an imperious entitled little prick.

All I can say is that I saw the bastard for what he was, and I have lost whatever small amount of respect I had for the American public when so many millions still voted for this fucking loser.

to be the kind of guy that WANTED to be liked and 'cool' but cannot pull it off.

words, he surrounds himself with people who like him and feed his ego.

If the MSM told some of his more despicable personality traits, people would like him even less than they do.

Notice each time he makes a speech on TV that his numbers fall even lower. He used to be able to keep his hatefulness somewhat under control. It has gotten where he can't hide it, and people can actually see it in his face and eyes.

Bush will dump someone like a bag of trash, if it suits him. People in his administration have started to realize that he considers them to be expendable.

Heh, let's all go have a beer with someone ELSE.

the superficiality of his "fun" personality. Most of us know his type. The neighbor or the guy at work who makes himself the center of attention, the self-important one, who actually does make you laugh, but then shake your head. The one who might be fun at parties and tell decent jokes, and such, but you're glad you don't have to deal with him on a more intimate basis. You think to yourself, "gee, I feel sorry for that guy's poor wife."

A certain percentage of people do get sucked in by this personality type, but those people probably have problems seeing through the superficiality and see everything on a concrete basis, rather than with a grain of salt.

I WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND IT; media primping aside, the guy displays what an incompetent asshat he is to the world EVERY TIME HE SPEAKS.

Lots of gullible people. But, at least he is such an annoying idiot that people are starting to become irritated with him. Ya know, he was fun for a while, but it's getting to be too much. I don't know - from my first look at the guy I had him pegged, just like I believe many of us here did.

When he announced his run for president back in, was it 98 or 99?, I started to research him and I was totally shocked that the Republicans would pick a guy with such a lousy record and who was such an idiot to boot. That's when I REALLY started to understand what these criminals were all about.

Sometimes I wish I believed in hell, cause I sure would like to see them all there.

when he was running for governor of my state, I laughed and wondered to myself why someone so stupid and uninterested could possibly want to be governor. I still remember the chill that came over me when I realized OMG they are going to make him pesident

... and people like Karl Rove who will play every dirty trick in the book (and some extra ones too).

If the major networks are selectively editing out his worst mistakes ... heck, they could even make me seem witty and beautiful, with the same treatment.

I've seen it time and time again.
In my line of work, college education, we get a lot of young people who've coasted on charm and get a rather rude awakening. Some make changes and some do not.

Obviously, this one never did.
Hence, we are all having to clean up his mess and shoo him along.
And we'll be paying for his baggage forever.

Got a "charming" child? Quick! Work on a reality/wake up! Now!
Safe him/her/the world... a lot of grief.
And... we thank you.

These "golden boys" and girls just cannot believe they got a "D" or an "F" on their first paper. They stand there looking at you in a state of shock. "This has never happened to me before!" they protest.

I kinda' enjoy it, myself, that process of hitting upside the head with the reality that they might have to actually think.




Cher

... we caught them plagiarizing (one guy protested last term, saying "you can't accuse me of this, I'm an honors student! -- even though we'd found the article he'd copied from). Or because their lab partners don't feel they should benefit from work everybody else did while they goofed off.

Yes, a lot of shocked looks, for sure.

from what I've read about W, he is just as you say.

his likeability, leadership, christianity, and every other positive trait you can think of were ALL a function of the propaganda machine. rove orchestrated all the republican operatives and outlets to repeat ad nauseum that he was all these great things and dismiss the naysayers as lunatic fringe liberal bush haters.

so people formed the impression that he WAS all these great things because so many people seemed to agree on it all.


but the minute shrub secured a second term, his backers ceased to really need anything from him. his backers turned their interest to house and senate candidates and preparation for 2006 and 2008.

bush became an instant lame duck, and the press coverage of miers, katrina, social security, and iraq shows it. the teflon is gone, and people are finally seeing the shrub they would have seen all along if the media were ACTUALLY fair and balanced.

complete waste of DNA. He couldn't cut it as a Wal-Mart greeter. Why the hell anyone would vote for the dipshit for anything is beyond me.

and found him not likeable at all. nasty temper, never bothered to learn the women's names...they were all 'gals' to him.

"teflon" afterall.

Maybe they realize that george is just a "post turtle".
You know the kind you see driving down a country road.
The turtle is upside down on the top of a fence post.
You know he didn't climb up there by himself,
someone had to put him there, and you just want to get him down from there.

Not many people know he blew up frogs as a child, they think it is a urban legend type slant.
America always want to pick someone they perceive as a winner and are not very good on admitting mistakes.
They helped to put this turtle on the fence post

they can't be fooled again! Bwahaha! :rofl:

Smoke and mirrors from days as Texas gov.

No, I saw a con man. An alcoholic who can convince you that he isn't drinking but then when he is not around you he is telling such a good story at the bar that the others treat him to drinks. He seems to get that smirk on his face each and every time he thinks he has put one over on whoever he is talking to at the time on any subject. It's all for fun anyway - no one gets hurt, except everyone else!

An angry, brain-damaged drunk who can't put words together into a sentence but smirks cause he is checking his audience for the laugh of acceptance. Anyone who watched the presidential debates would get it.

It was excellent marketing and PR that created this personality into something that got elected. It was all fictional at all times.

I think you make an excellent point, ArmchairMeme -- all the consultants and scriptwriters who worked on the "Dubya" persona were able to assemble something that existed only in front of the camera. The costume, the lighting ... they went to amazing lengths. And it cost them a bundle.

"Media strategists noted afterward that Mr. Sforza and his aides had choreographed every aspect of the event, even down to the members of the Lincoln crew arrayed in coordinated shirt colors over Mr. Bush's right shoulder and the "Mission Accomplished" banner placed to perfectly capture the president and the celebratory two words in a single shot. The speech was specifically timed for what image makers call "magic hour light," which cast a golden glow on Mr. Bush.

"If you looked at the TV picture, you saw there was flattering light on his left cheek and slight shadowing on his right," Mr. King said. "It looked great.""


http://edition.cnn.com/2003/US/05/16/nyt.bumiller/

Bush is a rather impatient person who doesn't take coaching well, and not a professional performer by any standard ... so there are lots of times when the facade cracks and he doesn't say or do the scripted thing. His handlers have started bringing in people who are better at doing the folksy Dubya character (like that impersonator at the press dinner gig, who did his thing on the Sunday talk shows, in full makeup).

The fake Bush character is amusing and taps into a lot of American symbolism (the cowboy boots and drawl, etc.), but of course he's just as fictional as Kermit the Frog, or Mickey Mouse. And the real Bush isn't like him at all (rude and abusive in private, not warm and easygoing).

Mad George W. Bush as the WORST PRESIDENT IN HISTORY. Perhaps even in the history of the WORLD.

he would not back a bill to give medical insurance to the kids of the poor.

same as pulling a doc away from those kids.. repeated thousands of times.

what word to describe a thug that would do such?

non-human? I'll go with that.

===================
NOTE: i never go by a politician's personality . Or promises. I only look at what he has DONE.

bush pulled a doc away from a sick kids bedside.

:)

i know the first timei saw or heard of him i instantly disliked him.
i never dreamed he would be elected, er, umm, become president.
just like i never dreamed Americans could be so stupid as to elect a withered old vegetable like Ronald Reagan..

what precisely about him was perceived as likeable in the first place...

from a Middle Aged Female's Point of View. I would never have wanted to associate with him, either in my youth, or now.

- Karla Faye Tucker.

I knew then that he was a sham Christian, and a terrible governor with no leadership skills. You'd think that would have tipped off the born agains too, but apparently they love capital punishment.

He was so well liked the impeachment proceedings made him more popular!

in high school or even elementary school. You would think that for a job as important as president of the U.S. we would value and vote on performance and competence over likeability.

a cultural heritage of "Texas Good Ole Boys" who made decisions over bourbon and branch water while conveniently ignoring anything resembling the common good or human need. That likeability translates into never having to actually prove you know anything, just pop off with a few zingers and chuckle along with the rest of the boys. Sheeple are so easily fooled.

Well okay, back in 2000 and 2001 he was just plain unlikeable. But now, he's repellant. Every year he becomes continually more despicable and vile.

For those of you who can't stand when Bushie talks slow and over-enunciates you must understand that he does this only because if Rove and Cheney spoke any faster through the concealed ear-piece Dumbya' would lose his place and start to cry.

and anyone who EVER liked him in the first place was a sucker.

Period. A victim waiting to be preyed upon.

Moneyed, pampered, ... this is what comes when generations of the extremely wealthy INBREED ... they are out of touch with society ... everyone else becomes expendable ... they simply nod their "regal" head and thousands die ... or lose their jobs ... poof ... some might call it a sociopath, true enough, but this is they way these folks have always been ...

Take a look at this picture ... if the MUSLIMS posed like this what would we say about them? ... and yet WE consider this behavior normal? ...

Poppy Bush's group photo as a Bonesman:

http://tinyurl.com/lhanv

Each class or "cohort" of Bonesmen has exactly 15 members. The official group photo of each year's cohort is always posed exactly the same way with a skull and crossbones on a table in the center, two men seated on either side of the table, a third standing over the table, and the 12 others arrayed on either side. In the center at the rear is a grandfather clock with its hands pointing to 8 o'clock.

What would you see?

I'm guessing that not all the men in that picture turned out the way that Poppy and his dysfunctional son did.

unhappy, sober looking bunch of young men. They all look like they've just been told they'd be castrated immediately after the photo.

Buncha SHORT little shits, aren't they? :evilgrin:

(And I say this as someone who stands 5'7" on a GOOD day...)

about a treasury looting lying scumbag and war profiteer? And remember watch what you say and watch what you do.

so whens the media gonna start calling him unpopular since they kept calling him popular throughout the 2004 campaign.