38 percent approve of Bush's handling of economy

You can fool some of the people all of the time. 38 percent of them, to be exact. The latest CBS News poll gives hope to us fervently hoping the nation wakes up to Bush's ineptitude.

BUSH'S RATING ON HANDLING THE ECONOMY

Approve:

Now
38%
1/23/02
44%
2/2002
54%
3/2001
55%

Disapprove:

Now
53%
1/23/03
49%
2/2002
37%
3/2001
28%

Perceptions of the economy continue to decline, as they have since the start of the Bush Administration; in this poll, 60% think it is in bad shape, while 39% think it is good -- the worst evaluation of the state of the economy since September, 1993.

STATE OF THE ECONOMY

Good:

Now
39%
1/2001
84%
9/1993
32%

Bad:

Now
60%
1/2001
15%
9/1993
67%

The economy is of greatest concern to most Americans right now. When asked which is the most important for Congress to address -- the economy, Iraq, or the war on terror, 41% say the economy should be the primary focus of government. 30% think Iraq is the priority, followed by 23% who name the war on terror.

There you have it folks, the economy trumps everything, though it's disturbing that more people are concerned about Iraq than the very terrorists who wiped out the WTC.

Oh, and how about a serving of this:

BUSH JOB EVALUATION

Approve:

Overall
54%
Handling foreign policy
47%
Handling situation with Iraq
53%

Disapprove:
Overall
38%
Handling foreign policy
44%
Handling situation with Iraq
42%

Most of the recent decline has occurred among Democrats and Independents. After Bush’s State of the Union message, 41% of Democrats said they approved of the way Bush was handling his job. Just 29% said they did in this poll.

There's more to the poll, the usual crap about most people wanting to give inspectors a chance, work within the UN framework, yadda yadda. You know, stuff that doesn't matter anymore because the bombs will start falling soon, regardless what Americans or the rest of the world think.

What matters is that even with the imminent threat of war, Bush's numbers are still going down. And the more the administration focuses on war, the harder it will be for them to repair their image on the economy.

Posted February 13, 2003 05:55 PM | Comments (83)