Nixon territory

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Pardon my Schadenfreude, but a new Newsweek poll finds Bush's approval rating at just 26 percent, the lowest for any president since Nixon in January 1974 -- just seven months before his resignation, Nixon's approval rating was a lowly 23 percent. Carter dipped to 28 percent in June 1979. On the flip side, Bush's disapproval rating is 65 percent, "including nearly a third of Republicans".

Also: "The war in Iraq continues to drag Bush down. A record 73 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Bush has done handling Iraq. Despite “the surge” in U.S. forces into Baghdad and Iraq’s western Anbar province, a record-low 23 percent of Americans approve of the president’s actions in Iraq, down 5 points since the end of March." And it's not just Iraq: "Bush scores record or near record lows on every major issue: from the economy (34 percent approve, 60 percent disapprove) to health care (28 percent approve, 61 percent disapprove) to immigration (23 percent approve, 63 percent disapprove)."

Blogging as a non-American, which is what I am, allow me to congratulate the American people for getting it right on this one. (If only more of you had gotten it right in '00 and '04, eh?) I'm not sure what to make the pro-Bush 26 percent of them, but, then, no people are perfect. Perhaps more and more of them will come to side with the overwhelming majority of their fellow citizens, that is, to recognize reality for what it is, over the remainder of Bush's presidency. Unfortunately, there are likely more then seven months left.