reality-based educator

Americans do not trust the preznut to lead the country anymore:

With a major confrontation between Congress and the president brewing over Iraq, Americans overwhelmingly oppose Bush's plan to send an additional 21,500 troops to the conflict. By wide margins, they prefer that congressional Democrats, who now hold majorities in both chambers, take the lead in setting the direction for the country rather than the president.

Iraq dominates the national agenda, with 48 percent of Americans calling the war the single most important issue they want Bush and the Congress to deal with this year. No other issue rises out of single digits.

The poll also finds that the public trusts congressional Democrats over Bush to deal with the conflict by a margin of 60 percent to 33 percent.

Additional findings in the poll:

Support for Bush's troop surge plan in Iraq actually declined after Bush's January 10th TV address to the nation unveiling the plan. Before the speech, 61% opposed the surge plan; after the speech, 65% opposed the plan.

Heckuva job, Bushie!

59% of Americans wants Congress to try to block the preznut's surge plan.

Just 26% of Americans believe the country is headed in the right direction, 71% believe the country is headed off track - the worst numbers for these ratings in more than a decade.

Heckuva job, Bushie!

33% of Americans approve of the job George W. Bush is doing as preznut, 65% disapprove. The approval number matches his all-time low for the ABC/Post poll.

51% strongly disapprove of the job he is doing as preznut while just 17% strongly approve of it.

Heckuva job, Bushie!

29% approve of his handling of the Iraq war, 70% disapprove.

Just 46% of Americans approve of his handling of the war on terror, 52% disapprove. The terrorism number used to be money in the bank for this preznut, but now his negatives outweigh his positives even on this issue.

Heckuva job, Bushie!

Just 40% think Bush is honest and trustworthy - matching the all-time low for his presidency. A little more than a third of those surveyed said they think Bush understands problems of people like themselves.

Heckuva job, Bushie!

42% of Americans think Bush can be trusted to handle a crisis, 56% say he cannot. The Post says this is the first time he has fallen into negative territory on this question.

45% call Bush a strong leader - this is also the lowest number of his presidency for the strong leader category. The previous low - 47% - came after Katrina.

Heckuva job, Bushie!

Nearly two-thirds of Americans now say it was a mistake to go to war in Iraq.

55% say the preznut has not made the country safer.

Heckuva job, Bushie!

By better than 2-1 margin (57%-25%), Americans wants Democrats to set the agenda for the direction of the country.

Americans prefer Dems in Congress over the preznut to handle the following issues: Iraq, the economy, the federal budget, and terrorism.

Heckuva job, Bushie! Americans even prefer Dems to you on the terrorism issue!

But don't you get the feeling that even with these abysmal approval numbers and a large majority of the country opposed to him and his policies, Preznut Bush is still going to go ahead with the troop surge plan AND expand the war to Iran?

Every morning, the first thing I do is check to see if he bombed Iran the night before. I figure the bombing attack is probably a couple of months away yet (notice that the propaganda/ad campaign for the Iran attack hasn't gone into overdrive yet), but with this crazy guy in the White House (and the even crazier Dick Cheney in the bunker), you just never know.

And I still maintain that there's a good chance George and Dick aren't leaving in '09. I dunno what "crisis" they'll trump up to cross the Rubicon, but you know these two guys think only they can handle the WoT and if a Hillary or Obama are elected next time around, Americans are probably going to have to force them out of power.