reality-based educator

I know David Broder and many of the other storied members of the Washington press corps continue to hope for a "Bush bounce," but it ain't happening. Here are the latest poll numbers from Newsweek for the preznut and his would-be Grand Old Party successors:

May 5, 2007 - It’s hard to say which is worse news for Republicans: that George W. Bush now has the worst approval rating of an American president in a generation, or that he seems to be dragging every ’08 Republican presidential candidate down with him. But According to the new NEWSWEEK Poll, the public’s approval of Bush has sunk to 28 percent, an all-time low for this president in our poll, and a point lower than Gallup recorded for his father at Bush Sr.’s nadir. The last president to be this unpopular was Jimmy Carter who also scored a 28 percent approval in 1979. This remarkably low rating seems to be casting a dark shadow over the GOP’s chances for victory in ’08. The NEWSWEEK Poll finds each of the leading Democratic contenders beating the Republican frontrunners in head-to-head matchups.

71% of respondents in the Newsweek poll say they are unhappy with the direction of the country.

71%.

Only 25% are happy with the way things are going.

And to say it just one more time for the members of the media like David Broder and Mark Halperin who think Bushie's doing great and is in the midst of a historical comeback, with 28% approval and 64% disapproval, George W. Bush has tied Jimmy Carter for unpopularity.

That's right - he's in Carter territory.

And the Newsweek poll, while usually showing lower approval/higher disapproval ratings for Preznut Bush than other major polls, is NOT an outlier in measuring the preznut's historic unpopularity with the American people and the huge spread between those who approve of him and those who don't.

The last 9 major polls taken before the Newsweek poll have similar findings:

Quinnipiac (4/25-5/1): Approve: 35% Disapprove: 60%
Diageo/Hotline (4/26-4/30): Approve: 35% Disapprove 62%
CBS/NY Times (4/20-4/24): Approve: 32% Disapprove: 61%
NBC/WSJ (4/20-4/23): Approve 35% Disapprove: 60%
Pew (4/18-4/22): Approve: 35% Disapprove: 57%
Fox (4/17-4/18): Approve: 38% Disapprove: 54%
Gallup (4/13-4/15): Approve: 36% Disapprove: 60%
ABC/Wash Post (4/12-4/15): Approve: 35% Disapprove: 62%
CNN (4/10-4/12): Approve: 36% Disapprove: 62%

In the 10 major polls taken in the last month, Bush averages -25.7% in approval/disapproval.

If you take out the relatively friendly -16% he garners in the Fox Noise poll, Bush averages -26.7% in approval/disapproval.

There is no Bush Bounce.

There is rather a Bush Suck.

Let's see if the current crop of republican successors to Bushie can generate enough momentum to pull away from the enormous power of the Bush Suck.