I'm sure you have seen this poll by CBS which has Bush's approval rating at 39%. Kathryn Jean Lopez, writing at The Corner for National Review Online, has some analysis of the poll, and commentary on Bush's political failures. First, she points out that the survey is among "adults" and not "registered voters," and the "adults" group always skews Democrat (which doesn't mean much, because they don't vote). The group itself is also skewed Democrat, so much so that they elminated some of the sample:

The data set itself is dramatically more Democrat. It’s 28% Republican and 37% Democrat AFTER they weighted Republicans UP. In other words, the sample was even more Democrat when it came back. In fact, Democrats were 40% of the sample and Republicans were only 27%. Someone clearly knew having a sample that was 40-27 would be a tip-off, so they weighted Dems down into the 30%s in order to avoid extreme criticism.

She also sees problems with the questions, and thinks that this is being done for the sake of headlines only. This does not mean that she is giving Bush a free pass, either. She lists some of his failures, and points out some things the Republicans in Congress should be listening to the conservatives on:

We should be eliminating ALL the perks in Congress. We should be talking about lifetime bans on Congresspersons from lobbying. We should be talking about a constitutional amendment requiring supermajorities to increase taxes. We should be far more aggressive on immigration, but the President is simply wrong on this issue too – an issue that the public is dramatically to the right of both parties on.

Posted by Ryan S. on Tuesday, February 28, 2006 at 11:41 AM | Permalink |