Bush numbers plummet

Zogby will release a poll tomorrow showing a 7 percent slide in Bush's approval numbers. (Thanks to Nathan Newman for the link.)

In the poll, Bush is at 62 percent -- quite a mortal number. And given the market's performance these past two weeks, more polls will start showing similar results.

And I'm willing to bet that the Zogby poll, and others like it, will continue to show a public unperturbed by Harken. The Harken stuff, in a vacuum, is not really a big deal politically (witness how the press and public shrugged off the story during every single one of Bush's campaigns). But as I have argued before, it does a great job of linking Bush to the current economic malaise.

Bush promised economic growth if elected. Didn't happen. He promised economic recovery if his tax cuts were passed. Didn't deliver. He promised to get tough with corporate hoodlums. We saw how the markets have reacted.

And with public opinion of CEOs and Directors in the dumps, we then learned that Bush was once one of them. So in one month, Bush is down from the mid-80s to the low 60s. His numbers will bottom out in the mid-to-low-50s. The only question is how long it will take to get there. Either way, it spells disaster for the GOP in the 2002 elections, who won't be able to count on their party's leader to give them a boost.

Posted July 15, 2002 05:36 PM | Comments (1)