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Bush's Popularity Hits New Low

From Paul Steinhauser,
CNN
Posted: 2008-03-20 14:24:11
Filed Under: Politics News
WASHINGTON (March 20) - Five years after he green-lighted the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, President Bush faced strikingly low approval ratings as he reaffirmed his commitment to "accept no outcome but victory" in the war.

Photo Gallery

Jim Watson, AFP / Getty Images

Down 40 Points
In Five Years

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Just 31 percent of Americans approve of the job President Bush is doing, a new low in CNN polling. The rating came on Wednesday, the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war. Bush's rating was 40 points higher when the war began. In a speech Wednesday, Bush called the debate over Iraq "understandable" but said a continued U.S. presence there was crucial.


Just 31 percent of Americans approve of how President Bush is handling his job, according to a poll released Wednesday, the anniversary of the start of the conflict in 2003.

Sixty-seven percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey disapprove of the president's performance.

The 31 percent approval number is a new low for Bush in CNN polling and is 40 points lower than the president's number at the start of the Iraq war.

"Bush's approval rating five years ago, at the start of the Iraq war, was 71 percent, and that 40-point drop is almost identical to the drop President Lyndon Johnson faced during the Vietnam War," CNN polling director Keating Holland said.

"Johnson's approval rating was 74 percent just before Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution in 1964, which effectively authorized the Vietnam War. Four years later, his approval was down to 35 percent, a 39-point drop that is statistically identical to what Bush has faced so far over the length of the Iraq war," he said.

But there was no sign that the conflict would end soon.

During a speech at the Pentagon Wednesday, the president called the debate over Iraq "understandable" but insisted that a continued U.S. presence in the region was crucial.

Photo Gallery

Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP

How Does
Bush Compare?

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President Bush hit his lowest rating approval rating yet in a CNN poll, with only 31 percent of Americans saying said they like the job he is doing.
Click through the gallery to see other presidents who have faced low ratings. (*Note: Some numbers may vary slightly from story and other sources due to differences in source polling data.)

"Defeating this enemy in Iraq will make it less likely we will face this enemy here at home," he said.

"We're helping the people of Iraq establish a democracy in the heart of the Middle East. A free Iraq will fight terrorists instead of harboring them."

Not far away from the Pentagon, where the president was speaking, voices called for an end to the conflict.

Several hundred anti-war protesters marched through Washington, splattering red paint on government and defense contractors' offices and occasionally scuffling with police.

Protesters, including many veterans, demanded the arrests of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as war criminals.

Others hurled balloons full of paint at a military recruiting station and smeared it on and outside buildings housing defense contractors Bechtel and Lockheed Martin.

At least 31 people were arrested after crossing police lines outside the Internal Revenue Service building on Pennsylvania Avenue, protest organizer Freida Berrigan said.

Other protests took place in San Francisco, where 115 people were arrested and released after being cited for misdemeanors such as trespassing, resisting arrest and blocking an intersection, said Sgt. Steve Mannina, a police spokesman.

The Legacy of the War

Bush ordered U.S. troops into Iraq on March 19, 2003, after months of warnings that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was hiding stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and efforts to build a nuclear bomb.

U.N. weapons inspectors found no sign of banned weapons before the invasion, and the CIA later concluded that Iraq had dismantled its weapons programs in the 1990s.

Almost 4,000 Americans have died in Iraq since then, and estimates of the Iraqi toll range from about 80,000 to 150,000 or more.

Almost 160,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, and the war has cost U.S. taxpayers about $600 billion, according to the House Budget Committee.

The president's approval rating has been below 35 percent since October and has not cracked 40 percent since September 2006.

Still, Bush's approval number is still better than the lowest number for his father, George H.W. Bush, who bottomed out at 29 percent in July 1992; Jimmy Carter, who fell to 28 percent in June 1979; Richard Nixon, at 24 percent in July and August 1974; and Harry Truman, who dipped to 22 percent in 1952.

"Lame-duck presidents presiding over unpopular wars or struggling economies have gotten low approval ratings in the past," Holland said.

"By contrast, lame ducks like Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower and Bill Clinton had robust approval ratings in their final years in office, but each one was presiding over good economic times and a country at peace."

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted by telephone with 1,019 adult Americans from Friday through Sunday.

The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

2008-03-20 06:45:10
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rwcbi 09:14:58 PM Mar 31 2008

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Aol why leave this up for 11 days? Start asking questions about the Wright/Obama connection and the story telling by H.Clinton.

jagobucks 11:49:13 PM Mar 26 2008

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If Bush is so bad, how is it the Democats could not find a candidate capable of winning either of the last two elections? Surely there hadt to be someone better than Gore or Kerry. Come on Dems - can't we put up a real candidate?

al02em04 10:36:46 PM Mar 26 2008

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fnviiiviviiviiio 10:08:21 PM Mar 26 2008

Report This! Thank God Bush messed this nation up so bad Republicans won't see the oval office for the next 50 years."

You're putting a lot of faith in the voters. Why? They screwed it up royally the last two times (or got cheated out of their votes...)

idealcenturion 10:12:53 PM Mar 26 2008

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McCain is no more...he has cocooned inside Bush for four years and has emerged as McBush-now the president can dance again. Four more years!

thegreatrandini 10:09:05 PM Mar 26 2008

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Bush is a DORK

fnviiiviviiviiio 10:08:21 PM Mar 26 2008

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Thank God Bush messed this nation up so bad Republicans won't see the oval office for the next 50 years.

cgenocole 10:01:14 PM Mar 26 2008

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After what Bush has done to the US with the Iraq War and the current economic crisis; if fools want to elect6 another Reopublican, they deserve everything they get.

brg5831 09:19:55 PM Mar 26 2008

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Democrats, what are you doing about your leades who forced you to choose between two candidates who cannot possibly win.

brg5831 09:18:14 PM Mar 26 2008

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This year's democrat primary is Exhibit A why blacks and women were not allowed to vote.

georbrice 09:15:39 PM Mar 26 2008

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this guy is a lame duck criminal

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