WP: Pollster Suggests Bush Moves Might Be Too Little, Too Late

Pollster Suggests Bush Moves Might Be Too Little, Too Late
By Eric Pianin and Chris Cillizza
Sunday, May 7, 2006; Page A05

The recent White House shake-up was an attempt to jump-start the administration and boost President Bush's rock-bottom approval ratings, but have those efforts come too late to salvage the presidency? A prominent GOP pollster thinks that may be the case.

"This administration may be over," Lance Tarrance, a chief architect of the Republicans' 1960s and '70s Southern strategy, told a gathering of journalists and political wonks last week. "By and large, if you want to be tough about it, the relevancy of this administration on policy may be over."

A new poll by RT Strategies, the firm headed by Tarrance and Democratic pollster Thomas Riehle, shows that 59 percent of Americans disapprove of Bush's job performance, while 36 percent approve -- a finding in line with other recent polls.

Tarrance said it would be extremely difficult for any president to bounce back this late in his administration and reassert influence on Capitol Hill when his approval rating barely exceeds his party's base support and half of all adults surveyed said they "strongly disapprove" of his performance. An overwhelming 73 percent of independents disapprove of Bush's performance, and two-thirds of those "strongly disapprove."

The new poll of 1,003 adults was conducted April 27-30 (after Bush had picked a new chief of staff, budget director and press secretary) and was released at a conference sponsored by the Cook Political Report. It contains plenty of other bad news for Bush and the Republican Party, and suggests that the growing unpopularity of the Iraq war may be turning this year's midterm congressional elections from local to national issues....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/06/AR2006050600909.html

.. but they're such idiotic moves. I almost wrote movies... lol.

Sue

If they hadn't been so greedy as to steal the 2004 election? Just like with Iraq, they went to war without any plan to keep the peace afterward. Now all hell is breaking loose, and the Republican party is in a civil war.

...I don't care HOW stupid the average middle America Bush voter is.

They DO NOT PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE with the Dow Jones Average.

How stupid are they?

PRETTY-FRIGGIN'-STUPID...BUT...

...smart enough to know that the economy is "roaring" for Bush's base and NO ONE ELSE.

"Re-arranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg" isn't enough. No one cares about Tony Snow except Tony Snow, his mom, his dad, and the "Fox Fans."

I agree with you:"the economy is "roaring" for Bush's base and NO ONE ELSE."

I'm quite amazed that corruption, lies, and incompetence aren't #1. Maybe those just weren't in the poll.

Don't. You. Believe. It.