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Bush public support at lowest level
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-04 20:52
President Bush's public support has eroded to its lowest
level yet, with the Iraq war dragging on, a top White House aide facing felony
charges and the White House rushing to replace a failed Supreme Court nominee.
President Bush and first lady Laura Bush board
Air Force One en route to Mar del Plata, Argentina, Thursday, Nov. 3,
2005, at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington. [AP]
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Concerned that the president has lost his footing, some Republicans have
suggested Bush should shake up his staff.
A new AP-Ipsos poll found the president's approval rating was at 37 percent,
compared with 39 percent a month ago. About 59 percent of those surveyed said
they disapproved.
The intensity of disapproval is the strongest to date, with 42 percent now
saying they "strongly disapprove" of how Bush is handling his job — twice as
many as the 20 percent who said they "strongly approve."
"This is the poorest excuse for a president this country has ever had," said
Max Hollinberger, a businessman from Stanwood, Wash., who leans Democratic. He
cited "the economy, going to war in Iraq for no reason, the way we can get to
the tsunami victims before Katrina victims — the whole business."
A year after his re-election, Bush's second term has been marred by rising
U.S. casualties in Iraq, a failed attempt to restructure Social Security,
Hurricane Katrina missteps, rising fuel costs and his forced withdrawal of the
Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers.
In a case involving the public naming of a covert CIA operative married to an
Iraq war critic, Vice President Dick Cheney's former aide, I. Lewis "Scooter"
Libby, pleaded not guilty on Thursday in federal court to charges of obstruction
of justice, perjury and lying to investigators. The case casts a continuing
cloud over Cheney and keeps Bush's closest adviser, Karl Rove, in legal
jeopardy.
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