Bush's approval rating still weak

Time emphasizes all the "good" news -- the killing of Zarqawi, the non-indictment of Rove, and a growing economy -- yet still finds in a recent survey that this "spate of good news at home and abroad has so far failed to boost how Americans feel about President Bush's job performance".

I'm not sure what "spate" they're talking about. Indeed, "spate" doesn't seem like the right word at all. There's been some good news for Bush, I suppose, or at least some non-negative news that can be spun as positive news, but Time is just regurgitating the same old Bush-is-on-the-upswing media narrative that we've already debunked here at The Reaction -- see here, for example.

Regardless, these are the chilling numbers for Dubya:

Bush's approval rating slipped to 35% in a TIME poll taken this week, down from 37% in March (and 53% in early 2005). Only 33% of Americans in the survey said they approved of Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq, vs. 35% in March, and 47% in March 2005. His management of the U.S. economy lost supporters, too, as 36% approved, compared with 39% three months earlier. Bush's handling of the war on terror saw a slight gain in support, from 44% to 45%.

And despite all that "good" news:

[C]ontinued pessimism about the situation in Iraq and a broad sense of unease about America's direction may be undermining Bush's popularity. In the TIME survey, 66% said the country is on the wrong track, vs. 28% who said it's going in the right direction. Those numbers have worsened since March, when the poll recorded a 60% to 34% split. When asked whether the new Iraqi government will be able to build a stable and reasonably democratic society, 48% of those surveyed said no, while 39% remain optimistic.

In other words, despite the pro-Bush media narrative, Bush's approval rating and Americans' sense of where the country is headed are both bad. Think what those numbers would be without the media narrative, that is, with the media doing their job properly and reporting things as they are rather than as they are spun to be.

One-third of Americans approve of Bush's job performance. Two-thirds of Americans think the country's headed in the wrong direction. Remind me again how Bush won a second term. Or how anyone considers him to be anything other than a failure.