President George W. Bush’s approval rating has rebounded to 44 percent, the highest level in a year, in the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, the newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Bush’s approval rating jumped five points from 39 percent in the previous poll conducted earlier this month.
The bounce comes with seven weeks before elections to decide control of Congress amid falling gas prices and a renewed campaign by Bush to boost support for the Iraq war and to portray Republicans as more competent than Democrats on security, the newspaper said.
Bush’s approval rating edged up largely on the strength of Republicans coming back to the fold with 86 percent saying they support him now, compared to 70 percent in May, USA Today said.
For the first time since December 2005, a majority of people polled did not say the war in Iraq was a mistake. The respondents were evenly split at 49 percent to 49 percent, the report said.
However, the poll finds that the Iraq war continues to be a problem for Bush. Sixty percent said he does not have a clear plan for handling Iraq and 75 percent said Iraq is in a civil war, USA Today said.
The telephone poll of 1,003 people was conducted September 15-17, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited
14 thoughts on “Bush’s approval rating up 5 points in new poll”
What was going through their heads as they voted for him? I got a glimpse into this recently when on Sept 11 a blogger on a non political blog suggested that if the government would just nuke these enemy countries instead of just slapping their wrists our problems would be solved and that if the government was run by real men this is just what we’d do. GWB has recently come out swinging again and probably raising hopes that we might really start to fight these wars instead of pussyfooting around and thus raising his poll numbers among the incredibly stupid populace of the US, many of whom vote straight from the NRA toplist of politicians least likely to take away their hunting rifles.
And OH YES, also do away with Social Security. It’s socialist.
Hmm. I might just believe it. How else to explain ANYTHING having to do with politics anymore? I mean, who would have ever voted for Bush to begin with? What could possibly be going through a voter’s head when pulling the lever for Bush? He has so clearly worked on behalf of so very few people–furthering their interests at the cost of the rest of us–and he has’nt been shy about these motives either–that it has now come the point that I’d think the ONLY way to rescue the Republicans is to immediately invade Iran, jack gasoline up to $8 a gallon and institute an UNearned tax credit for trust fund brats…then the masses would rush to the friggen polls and write in Tom DeLay’s name in all districts.
I, for one, do believe in polls in general. I believe that when designed, organized and interpreted correctly, they are a good measure of the public opinion. I’m even willing to give this poll the benefit of the doubt on those fronts.
What does this poll say, however? The opinion of the general public on matters of fact is irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that Iraq is in civil war – the fact that 25% of Americans are ignorant of this says more about how ignorant Americans are than it does about Iraq.
As for whether or not the Iraq war was a “mistake,” that depends on the intended meaning of mistake. If it means the expenditure of many American resources and lives that has made the Middle East and the world less safe, eroded the public trust and our allies’ faith in us, all for no measurable benefit to the American people, then yes, it is a huge mistake. That is a matter of fact, and whether it’s 51% or 49% of the public that recognizes that is irrelevant. If you’re looking at the war as a ploy to justify the fictional “War on Terror” as an excuse to concentrate American political power into the hands of the Executive branch, on the other hand, then it’s not a mistake at all, it’s a huge success, again, as a matter of fact.
The only part of this poll that has any meaning is the actual approval rating, because that is the only category that actually falls under opinion. This poll found that Bush’s numbers are up 5 points, which is just two more than the margin of error. So basically, we know that there has been a slight upturn in the number of Americans who support Bush -people who already have shown themselves to be frightfully ignorant, in the aggregate, in matters of fact, as revealed by their responses to the other points on the poll. This after the paper admits that the Bush cabal has ramped up the propoganda machine to high gear in recent days. Is anyone surprised? Anyone? Seems pretty consistant to me that people who don’t know their facts are easily swayed by propoganda.
So what does this poll really show? That a significant portion of Americans are ignorant, gullible and susceptible to propoganda. We know that already. That’s how Bush got “elected” in the first place.
I do not believe in Polls. Watch Bush talk and then tell me he is doing a good job. He missed an opportunity to talk to the leader of Iran, refused to talk with him, he would not be able to talk on an intelligent level with this cruel man.
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