Our blogs about
America's Wars
War on Iraq
War on Drugs
War on Afghanistan
War on Columbia
War on Philippines
War on Venezuela

MORE
Matrix Masters
Blogs
World Events
Katrina's Aftermath
US News
Bush Crime Family News
Science & Health
Earth News
Free Speech
News from Africa
News from Palestine
Bill of Rights Under Attack

Support Bloggers' Rights!

Lorenzo's
Random Musings
. . . about Chaos,
Reason, and Hope

 

Bush Losing Ground in Polls ... his lowest rating ever
(Peter S. Canellos, The Boston Globe, September 24, 2003)
For the first time since Sept. 11, 2001, Bush seemed to be in a crisis that was purely political, and largely of his own making. . . . Yesterday, the Gallup Poll announced that Bush's approval ratings had sunk to their lowest point in his presidency, 50 percent, while the Pew Research Center released a poll showing that 59 percent of Americans oppose the $87 billion request. . . . More worrisome for Bush, 57 percent in the Pew poll said they were willing to freeze Bush's tax cuts rather than sacrifice any domestic programs to foot the Iraq bill. . . . when Bush addressed the nation two weeks ago, explaining that Iraq was now the "central front" in the war on terrorism and that $87 billion would be needed in the next year to continue the job, public support started to waver. . . . "The public's skepticism about what's happening in Iraq was building very gradually and very diffusely," said Ralph Whitehead Jr., professor of journalism at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. "Without realizing it, Bush's proposal for the $87 billion probably crystallized public opinion on Iraq." . . . The Gallup Poll suggested that the nation was almost evenly divided on whether it was worth going to war at all, with 50 percent saying yes and 48 percent saying no. That's a drop of 8 percentage points in two weeks. The Pew poll suggested that the public was more concerned about spending money to rebuild the country than maintaining a military presence, with 63 percent opposing any removal of troops. . . . But by finally putting a price tag on the cost of the war, the administration seems to have invited voters to compare it with other priorities, such as prescription-drug benefits. Indeed, every pet cause -- from housing to deficit reduction -- can be seen as being crowded out by Iraqi concerns. . . . The administration had hoped to leaven its Iraq funding request with increased contributions from other countries.

posted by Lorenzo 4:23 PM