Blacks reject Bush

Wonder just how far Bush has fallen? Consider these poll numbers as reported by Dan Froomkin in the Post:

In what may turn out to be one of the biggest free-falls in the history of presidential polling, President Bush's job-approval rating among African Americans has dropped to 2 percent, according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

The drop among blacks drove Bush's overall job approval ratings to an all-time low of 39 percent in this poll. By comparison, 45 percent of whites and 36 percent of Hispanics approve of the job Bush is doing.

A few months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found Bush's approval rating among blacks at 51 percent. As recently as six months ago, it was at 19 percent.

51 to 19 to 2. There's one of the key indicators of Bush's recent decline and fall. Now, to be fair, this poll has a huge margin of error, and the number is probably more like 10 percent. Here are some other (likely more accurate) numbers:

The latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, released September 13, about two weeks after Katrina hit, found Bush's job approval among blacks at 14 percent, compared to 42 percent among the general population. Exit polls showed that 11 percent of black voters voted for Bush in November 2004.

[Late Update: The Pew Research Center is just out with its latest poll, which has a larger sample, and it finds Bush's approval rating among blacks at 12 percent, down only slightly from 14 in July. Here are those results.]

So it's more like 51 to 19 to 12. Which still says a lot.

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Around the blogosphere:

The Carpetbagger Report: "A stunning 28% believe the country is headed in the right direction, another all-time low in Bush's presidency, and generally a sign that voters are anxious for significant change."

The Moderate Voice: "Bottom line: you get a sense that it's going to be a very unhappy three years in the White House, no matter what choices they make. What can happen to drive Bush's numbers up? Even if there is another terrorist attack, Bush has angered so many people that the kind of unity and trust in the aftermath of 911 is unlikely... even if the worst happened again."

Think Progress: "To be fair, the margin of error on the poll is 3.4%. So Bush’s actual approval among African Americans could be anywhere from -1.4% to 5.4%."

Crooks and Liars, which has graciously linked to The Reaction twice in recent days, has some video of Tim Russert reporting on the poll numbers.