A totally anecdotal take on President Bush’s eroding numbers
The latest AP-Ipsos poll puts President George W. Bush’s approval rating at an abysmal 44%, but Republicans are said to largely be united behind him. Largely, yes, but perhaps the ranks are starting to thin, ever so slowly. One of my Red State correspondents tells me of three long-time Republican relatives or neighbors of his who have soured on the President.
One of them even voted for Democratic nominee John Kerry in last year’s election, after a long bout with unemployment. Another, one of those all-so-important Evangelical Christians, has turned against Bush over Iraq, while the third, perhaps the most hardcore Republican of the three, is fed up with Bush’s open-door immigration policy. Observations of this kind should always be taken with a grain of salt, but perhaps support among Republican grassroots for Bush is softening,thus robbing the President of some of that “politcal capital” he so enjoys to spend.
Whether the Democrats can turn Republican losses into their own gain is of course a different matter. But at least they how found a way for now to stop some of Bush’s big ticket items. Expanding support for their own - horrifying - agenda could be the next step.
If I were Bush, I would focus my efforts on packing the courts with conservative judges. That would rally his base and give him a lasting legacy. Not to mention that that is my very own top political priority (after you know what).
