Reuters: "Bush Taking Long View on Sliding Poll Numbers"

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&e=3&u=/nm/20050410/pl_nm/bush_dc



CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - Seated at the head of a conference table aboard Air Force One, talking at length with reporters, President Bush showed little sign of worry about a recent slide in public opinion polls. "You can find them going up and you can find them going down," Bush said of the surveys. "You can pretty much find out what you want in polls, is my point."

Poll numbers in the past several days point, however, to a basic reality for the president: the Social Security debate, high gasoline prices and negative fallout from the Terri Schiavo case have combined to hurt him. Less than three months after starting his second term, Bush's job approval rating has slipped to 48 percent, according to a recent NBC-Wall Street Journal poll. An average of polls by realclearpolitics.com said 53 percent of Americans believed the country was on the wrong track.



Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday that "we have obviously made some mistakes" in selling the overhaul but "to underestimate the tenacity of this president and his ability to get something done is a mistake that a lot of people have made."

Republicans admit Bush has hit a rough patch and say the higher gas prices, a rash of teen shootings and the Schiavo case have contributed to a sour mood. Polls show most Americans opposed congressional intervention in the dispute over whether to restore the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube. Bush came back from Texas to sign the legislation. "I think what we are experiencing right now is some brief turbulence in his poll numbers and they will start to climb over time," said a senior Republican congressional aide.

In the year 2O2O:

"GOP? who were they?"

President Kucinich nominates Michael Moore for Chief Justice.

I don't remember a lot of dispassionate analysis back when the numbers were stratospheric.

This legend in gilded letters on the tower of Konigsberg’s green gate might guide Shrub:

Vultus fortunae variatur imagine lunae: Crescit, decrescit, constans persistere nescit.

It means that the face of fortune varies and knows not how to remain steadfast.

People will forget about Schiavo but they won't forget paying 2.30+/gallon and I have a feeling gas prices are going to continue to soar.

Democrats need to take full advantage of this in '06 and scream loud and clear the oil prices are over inflated and the American people are being ripped off by big oil.

We need to get it in peoples head GOP=Big Oil.

I'm not sure if we can blame the Republicans for this one. Gas prices are way up all around the world including in the socialist democracies in Western Europe where Bush's policies are an anathema. It's word wide demand that's pushing up oil prices, not the Bush Administration or big oil.

But having said that, we really need to get Democrats back in power because they will push much harder for alternative forms of energy which are in the long run the only solution for rising demand and dwindling supplies of oil around the world.

go to republicans and I've recently read an article about how there are some analyst that feel the current price of gas is overvalued or inflated(but unfortunately I can't find the link)

Link

That is why we are different than Europe.

If we had ever implemented reasonable conservation measures, gas could be less than $1.00/gallon.

Democrats have always pushed for conservation and alternate fuels, and republicans have always shot it down because of the oil industry!

And the democracies in Europe are not socialist. Where did you hear that?

And Canada produces about that same percentage domestically, yet gas prices up there are almost 100% higher than in the USA, and they have a very liberal government.

On your other point, a more correct way to refer to the countries of Western Europe is to call them "Social Democracies."



http://tinyurl.com/5f2y8

that are driving up the prices. These increases are based on bs. It is not costing any more to take the oil out of the ground now then it did five years ago. In the meantime the oil barons are stuffing their offshore accounts full of cash.

"You can pretty much find out what you want in polls, is my point."

Couldn't give a rat's ass, cuz I got Diebolds!

"You can find them going up and you can find them going down," Bush said of the surveys. "You can pretty much find out what you want in polls, is my point."

There's just something about that grip that scares the crap out of me.

This is doubleplusgood.

That's pretty standard in this country; hardly a reason for a presidential popularity decline.