The Reaction: 41% of Americans...

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.

7 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 Marc Schneider, 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 Michael J.W. Stickings, at 1:36 PM
Stupid or not, Bush took a big gamble that he had the political capital to push through Social Security reform, as well as push through some contentious judges. He largely failed, and I think this plays into his low ratings. If he had played it safe and adopted a less bold plan of action, I think his numbers would be higher. But one thing I do admire about Bush (and yes, this stubborness has a huge downside) is his tenacity and resolve it comes to solving some of the big problems. Contrast that with a figure like Jaques Chirac, who has for years put off making difficult decisions to help the French economy and did serious aboutfaces on his core convictions when faced with initial public disapproval,and Bush comes off as a man of conviction. Not that I expect this solitary virtue to offset the rest of his vices...

By Nate, at 12:54 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

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