Treatment of Bush has been a disgrace

[33girl]

Originally Posted by AKA_Monet

One of my favorite US presidents that I admired was ironically, Nixon... He did do massive corruptions. And although I have a picture of my grandfather and President Ford, I still agree with is pardoning Nixon.

Nixon accomplished so much when he was in office (relations with China, etc) it's not funny. He would have been screwed no matter what he did because the press hated him. If he'd turned the Watergate burgulars in, he would have been a stool pigeon who didn't support his friends.

[Tinia2]

US President George W. Bush's approval rating slumps to record low

The CNN television/Opinion Research survey found that just 24 per cent of respondents believe Mr Bush is doing a good job, against 76 per cent who said that was not the case.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574...-23109,00.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-...16033.html?mod=

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by Tinia2

US President George W. Bush's approval rating slumps to record low

The CNN television/Opinion Research survey found that just 24 per cent of respondents believe Mr Bush is doing a good job, against 76 per cent who said that was not the case.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574...-23109,00.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-...16033.html?mod=

I saw this today too, and it kind of surprised me. I thought that we'd see an improvement, sort of like some of the rhetoric here in this thread seems a more moderate version of ideas expressed previous. I expected new polling to show kind of "well, maybe he doesn't suck that bad" and "crap, do we want Obama held to the same standard?" thinking.

And my other thought is "what's he done lately to approve or disapprove of?" What would a new decrease reflect on?

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

And my other thought is "what's he done lately to approve or disapprove of?" What would a new decrease reflect on?

It could be anything from the Obama campaign's strong ability to tie Bush to McCain (sort of a "loser-by-association" movement) to generalized Democrat front-running to a completely different population being contacted/returning contact - any sort of conjecture is sketchy for this sort of poll, although I'd guess the Occam's Razor solution is simple front-running for a winning party.

[Tinia2]

UGA' and KSig':
I do not get it either. And I am not about to even attempt a guess.
I am sort of wondering and waiting if fivethirtyeight is going to have a say on topic.
Politico.com included a rather interesting chart of Presidents back to Truman:
Bush is less popular than Nixon in final days:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15478.html
These links provide a bit of tracking history:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epo...-904.html#news
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epo...904.html#polls

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

I saw this today too, and it kind of surprised me. I thought that we'd see an improvement, sort of like some of the rhetoric here in this thread seems a more moderate version of ideas expressed previous. I expected new polling to show kind of "well, maybe he doesn't suck that bad" and "crap, do we want Obama held to the same standard?" thinking.

And my other thought is "what's he done lately to approve or disapprove of?" What would a new decrease reflect on?

My guess would be the economy. Right or wrong, the sitting President gets the blame (or credit) for the way things are going in general. And, in general, we're in deep doodoo.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by AGDee

My guess would be the economy. Right or wrong, the sitting President gets the blame (or credit) for the way things are going in general. And, in general, we're in deep doodoo.

Maybe some people were slow to notice, but it doesn't seem new since the last poll.

We'll see how much credit and blame that Obama gets generally. I think you all promised me in the Hurricane Katrina thread that everything would be sunshine and kittens if we elected a Democrat, and I'm totally expecting you all to deliver.

(Really, I think it's going to break down credit to Obama, blame to Bush pretty much through Obama's first term, no matter what or whose policies were actually responsible, but it doesn't bother me that much.)

[AGDee]

Perhaps my perception is altered because of my location, but people are starting to really panic about the economy around here. Yes, it was bad before, yes, our retirement funds were starting to tank, but every single day the news gets worse and worse. The possibility of GM going under is terrifying to us. I heard a stat today that if GM goes under, that will mean 2.5 million jobs will be lost around the country (and not just in the auto-industry). The statistic commonly tossed around in Michigan is that for every GM job lost in Michigan, 10 other people lose their jobs as a trickle down (restaurant workers, retail, etc). So yeah, the last week has been pretty horrific for a lot of us.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by AGDee

Perhaps my perception is altered because of my location, but people are starting to really panic about the economy around here. Yes, it was bad before, yes, our retirement funds were starting to tank, but every single day the news gets worse and worse. The possibility of GM going under is terrifying to us. I heard a stat today that if GM goes under, that will mean 2.5 million jobs will be lost around the country (and not just in the auto-industry). The statistic commonly tossed around in Michigan is that for every GM job lost in Michigan, 10 other people lose their jobs as a trickle down (restaurant workers, retail, etc). So yeah, the last week has been pretty horrific for a lot of us.

What do you think it would take to keep GM in business long term?

It's just really hard for me to imagine GM hanging in there, delivering pay and benefits at the level unions require and staying profitable. But I completely admit, I've not studied the issue at all.

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Nixon accomplished so much when he was in office (relations with China, etc) it's not funny. He would have been screwed no matter what he did because the press hated him. If he'd turned the Watergate burgulars in, he would have been a stool pigeon who didn't support his friends.

One of the interesting things about Watergate is it's caused people to forget just how brilliant Nixon was in his foreign policy. His paranoia just became his downfall.