Common Dreams: Waking to Reality

Published on Monday, June 13, 2005 by the Daily Camera (Boulder, CO)
Waking to Reality
Bush numbers drop as Americans reject spin

Editorial

When Bush's steely vow to get Osama bin Laden "dead or alive" went limp, he simply stopped mentioning the Sept. 11 mastermind.
When Muslims in Afghanistan and Pakistan rioted over a Newsweek report about "Quran abuse" by U.S. troops, the White House bellowed that the magazine had blood on its hands. Never mind that a U.S. Army report recently confirmed all kinds of Quran abuse, and that U.S. troops have tortured and killed detainees.

And so on, and so on.

The latest bad news for the president is his declining poll numbers. He has received sub-50-percent approval ratings since April. The latest Associated Press poll, mirroring other recent surveys, finds that 55 percent disapprove of his job performance, versus 43 percent approval.

On the issues, the AP poll finds that Americans disapprove of his handling of the economy by 54-43; on health care, education and the environment, 57 percent disapprove, while 40 percent approve; on foreign policy and the "war on terror" he's down by 52-45; on the Iraq war, 56 percent give thumbs down, versus 41 percent who approve; and on Bush's top domestic issue, Social Security, 59 percent disapprove, while just 37 percent approve.

The president's much-vaunted "political capital" from a narrow November victory looks, for now, pretty much spent. Six months into his second term, things aren't going well.

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http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0613-23.htm

except I'm wondering what they'll do to get this country "back on track" -- their track, of course.