Washington – A summer of bad news from Iraq, high gasoline prices, economic unease and now the devastation of Hurricane Katrina has left President Bush with overall approval ratings for his job performance and handling of Iraq, foreign policy and the economy at or near the lowest levels of his presidency, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.
For the first time, just half of Americans approve of Bush’s handling of terrorism, which has been his most consistent strength since he scored 90 percent approval ratings in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
More than six in 10 now say that he does not share their priorities for the country, 10 percentage points worse than on the eve of his re-election last fall, while barely half say he has strong qualities of leadership, about the same as said so at the early low ebb of his presidency in the summer of 2001.
More Americans now distrust the federal government to do the right thing than at any time since the terrorist attacks. And the poll revealed a sharp racial divide: While half of all respondents disapprove of the way Bush has handled the aftermath of Katrina, nearly three quarters of blacks do. (Bush won only about 10 percent of the black vote last year.)
The hurricane, alone, does not appear to have taken any significant toll on Bush’s overall job approval rating, which remains stuck virtually where it has been since early summer.
Bush’s support remained strong among Republicans, conservatives, evangelical Christians and those who said they voted for him last fall. Nearly twice as many people – 63 percent – said the country was “pretty seriously” on the wrong track as those who said it was headed in the right direction, equal to the worst level of Bush’s presidency during a spate of bad news last year.
Overall, 41 percent of respondents approved of Bush’s performance in office, while 53 percent disapproved. Those figures are in line with other national polls conducted over the past week, roughly equal to the worst ratings Bush has ever received, comparable to Ronald Reagan’s and Bill Clinton’s worst ratings, but well above the worst ever posted by the president’s father, Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon.