Bush's ratings sink amid public pessimism
Bush's approval rating dropped below 40 percent for the first time in polls by the Pew Research Center and NBC News/Wall Street Journal, and fewer than 30 percent of Americans believed the country was on the right track amid violence in Iraq, high gas prices and growing budget deficits.
A new Fox News poll also showed Bush's approval rating dropping to its lowest level in that survey, falling to 40 percent from 45 percent since late September.
"Bush's numbers are going from bad to worse, and there is no silver lining," said Pew pollster Andrew Kohut. "People just see more and more bad news everywhere and they don't see a way out."
The Pew poll, released on Thursday, found 29 percent satisfied with the country's direction. For the first time, a majority of Americans thought the Iraq war was not going well and solid majorities said Bush had made the economy and budget deficit worse.
"What people don't like is uncertainty," said independent pollster Dick Bennett of American Research Group. "What they really don't like is a president who doesn't acknowledge uncertainty and deal with it. Americans can take bad news, but they want a way out of it and they don't see that from Bush."
"Not only is it not unusual for a president to have an approval rating at 38 percent, it's almost predictable," Republican consultant Whit Ayres said. "Every president has rough patches, it says nothing about the ultimate historical judgment."
He said an improvement in gas prices, a dip in violence in Iraq or other good news for Bush could start to brighten his political picture quickly.
"There is no question the country is in a funk and some kind of event will have to turn it around," he said.