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The Democratic Strategist

Political Strategy for a Permanent Democratic Majority

More Bad Bush Numbers!

Nothing brings a bigger smile to DR’s face and makes him wiggle his ears more happily than a spate of bad Bush numbers.  Yesterday DR went over all the bad news for W in the lastest CBS News poll.  Today, we have both a Newsweek poll and an ABC/Washington Post poll that are chock full of downers for the Bushies.
In the Newsweek poll, Bushs’ approval rating has fallen to 55 percent, down 6 points since the end of May and 16 points since the fall of Baghdad.  Moreover, Bush’s approval rating on handling the Iraq situation is now at just 53 percent, down 16 points since the beginning of May. 
The Post poll has Bush’s approval rating somewhat higher, at 59 percent, but also finds a sharp recent drop of 9 points in the past 18 days.  This pretty much exactly parallels the drop in his approval rating on the Iraq situation, now 58 percent and also down 9 points in 18 days. 
Critically, according to the Post poll, a majority of the public now believes there’s been an “unacceptable” level of casualties in Iraq, which is up 8 points in less than three weeks.  And half the country now agrees that Bush intentionally exaggerated evidence about Iraq’s WMDs. 
Is all this hurting Bush’s chances for re-election?  You’d better believe it.  In the Newsweek poll, just 47 percent say they want to see Bush re-elected to another term as President, while 46 percent say they don’t want to see him re-elected!  Moreover, prospective Bush matchups with specific Democratic candidates yield Bush margins that are much smaller than anything we’ve seen so far.  In a matchup with John Kerry, the mighty incumbent has just an 8 point margin (50 percent for Bush to 42 percent for Kerry).