Thursday, July 28, 2005

41% of Americans...

...approve of Bush's job performance. Steve Soto asks the all-important question: "[E]xactly how much political capital does a 41% president have to demand anything?"* (Note also the poll results on Roberts and abortion. Looks like I'm with the majority here.)

* Answer: not much at all.

posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at 12:43 AM

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3 Comments:

  • I am skeptical about directly extrapolating polls on job approval into conclusions that Bush has no political capital. Job approval ratings are almost entirely related to external conditions; ie, if things are bad, job approval ratings will be bad regardless of the policies and vice versa. If things get better in Iraq (the military is already talking about withdrawing troops) or the economy picks up, Bush's approval ratings will go up. IMO, Bush still has a substantial residue of strong support--especially, of course, among the hard right. This is a lot different from other struggling presidencies, such as Carter and Johnson, who essentially had lost the support of EVERYONE. So, I think the job approval ratings for Bush don't necessarily translate into a lack of political capital, especially since he still has a solid GOP majority in Congress. And I suspect the court fight will invigorate Bush's standing. No, he won't get everything he wants, but I think the Democrats are banking too heavily on those low job approval ratings. They still have to come up with some alternatives that people prefer and, so far, I don't see them doing that.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:50 AM  

  • Oh, I agree, Marc. We already live in too much of a pollocracy, and I have much more respect for political leaders who defy the polls (though not necessarily the will of the people) and show real leadership. Like him or not, Bush has, at times, done just that. But I still don't think Bush has much political capital at the moment. We'll see if the Roberts nomination helps, but Bush needs some good news to stimulate his approval ratings. Right now, I'm not sure his own party is with him on a number of key issues.

    By Blogger Michael J.W. Stickings, at 1:36 PM  

  • Hi

    I thought you might like to know that the term POLLOCRACY was coined in a letter to the Editor published in the ANN ARBOR NEWS on may 4, 1990.
    the website www.POLLOCRACY.com mentions this

    mali

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:12 PM  

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