Washington – Political reversals at home and continued bad news from Iraq have dragged President Bush’s standing with the public to a new low, at the same time Republican fortunes on Capitol Hill also are deteriorating, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.
The survey found that 38 percent of the public approve of the job Bush is doing, down three percentage points in the past month and his worst showing in Post-ABC polling since he became president. Sixty percent disapprove of his performance.
With less than seven months remaining before the midterm elections, Bush’s political troubles already appear to be casting a long shadow over them. Barely a third of registered voters, 35 percent, approve of the way the Republican-held Congress is doing its job – the lowest level of support in nine years.
The negative judgments reflect the breadth of the GOP’s political difficulties.
Although the numbers do not represent a precipitous decline recently, the fact that they have stayed at low levels over recent months indicates the GOP is confronting some fundamental obstacles with public opinion rather than a patch of bad luck.
This grim news for the GOP is offset somewhat by the finding that 59 percent of voters say they approve of their own representative.
A total of 1,027 randomly selected adults were interviewed April 6-9. The margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points.
