Bush Approval Ratings Way Down: So What for Colorado?

According to The New York Times (free registration required), President Bush's approval ratings are at one of the lowest points in his presidency (NYT/CBS News Poll):

Forty-two percent of the people responding to the poll said they approved of the way Mr. Bush was handling his job, a marked decline from his 51 percent rating after of the November election, when he embarked on an ambitious second term agenda led by the overhaul of Social Security. Sixteen months before the midterm elections, Congress fared even worse in the survey, with the approval of just 33 percent of the respondents, and 19 percent saying Congress shared their priorities.

For a recent historical perspective, President Bill Clinton had a 54 percent approval rating at this same point in his presidency, according to a Pew Research Center poll, and Clinton was in the midst of a sex scandal. The Times quotes Clinton's approval ratings as being even higher at that point:

Mr. Bush's approval rating is below the historical pattern for June in the first year of a second term: President Clinton's stood at 60 percent and President Reagan's at 59 percent. But that could reflect, in part, the much greater partisan polarization in modern politics, underscored by the 71 percentage point gap between Mr. Bush's approval rating from Democrats and Republicans in the recent poll.


What does this all mean for Colorado? Maybe nothing, but with a couple of races that will be very tight, Bush's popularity will definitely play a role. If Bush remains this unpopular next year, it will hurt Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave's re-election; it will certainly benefit the Democratic candidate in CD-7; and it might make Congressman John Salazar much tougher to beat.

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