blevkog

While that 68% of support amongst Republicans seems astounding, and it is, bear in mind that not long ago (while he was in free fall) that number was an even more astonishing 85%. So, that's quite an erosion from the hard core base.

Also, they will be facing an election.. lack of support for their current leader could harm them.

There have been enough polls now to convince me that the disgust with Bush is deep and growing. As RT says, that the numbers from his own party are also plummetting is big news for the Dems.

However, these numbers can be used for the Republicans, too. You can see the efforts all over the place of the rebranding - Republicans are sounding like, well, not Republican all of a sudden. Distancing from Bush is becoming a sprint event, and those early out of the gate like McCain stand to gain.

For all it looks like the Republicans have screwed up as much as is humanly possible, it still unfortunately looks to me like the Democrats haven't actually given middle and soft-Republican voters a reason to vote for them; and I'm not convinced that the mid-terms will go in their favour. And even if it did, to what end? Bush is not running again in '08 and if the Democrats won one of the houses this fall, the Republicans could blame them for any bad decisions or stagnation (achk, the dreaded obstructionist opponent!) in the second half of this term.

Bush is the lamest of the lame duck presidents, but I still don't see how the Democrats, who have tried to sell themselves as Republicans in all but name for 15 years will actually manage to take advantage of it. As silly as it appears to have idiots like Rick Santorum trying to make like he gives a damn about the poor, it is almost as much of a stretch to believe Hillary Clinton does.

Of course, that's just my opinion, depressing as it is to those of us on the left.

Don't take too much comfort. 31 is still 3-5% better than the Liberals are doing here in Canada!

This is an approval rating, not a rating of party support. Though, if we take this as a rating of party support he's doing poorly compared to the Liberals, the Liberals are getting a slice of a pie split four ways, not two.

Right, Kris, I'd rather be doing 30% in a four-party race than a two.