Disfavor for President? Unpossible!
The Washington Post’s Peter Baker astounds us this morning with a huge surprise – President Bush is unpopular – more than President Nixon, it seems;
President Bush is a competitive guy. But this is one contest he would rather lose. With 18 months left in office, he is in the running for most unpopular president in the history of modern polling.
The latest Washington Post-ABC News survey shows that 65 percent of Americans disapprove of Bush’s job performance, matching his all-time low. In polls conducted by The Post or Gallup going back to 1938, only once has a president exceeded that level of public animosity — and that was Richard M. Nixon, who hit 66 percent four days before he resigned.
Imagine that! What Baker forgets is that out of the two of them, Nixon was the only one who cared whether he was popular or not. The subheadline of the story says that only Truman stayed “down” this long in modern histroy. That’s an apt comparison, I suppose. Neither Truman nor Bush cared what popular opinion thought of them.
Of course, it’s not surprising that President is so unpopular – the lies and inuendo-passed-off-as-truth have gone on since the Bush campaign started in 1999. Before he was President, someone said he was a coke head and with no evidence it’s become an accepted part of history. He pardoned Libby, just like his predecessors have done, and suddenly it’s unConstitutional.
But then the Washington Post wouldn’t mention this stuff because they were/are part and parcel of the problem. I wonder how long the Post would’ve ran a story about Haliburton selling space and defense technology to China? Or if President Bush had bombed an asprin factory in the Sudan and tried to pass it off a weapons plant? Or if Dick Cheney had been caught taking money from Buddist monks who had taken a vow of poverty but somehow scrapped up $5000Â per for the Bush/Cheney campaign?
But, anyway, back to reality. Bush’s (and Truman’s for that matter) unpopularity stems from the fact that they were/are leaders. Leaders make decisions based on what’s best for the whole, not on how well they’re liked. People who try to lead based on opinion polling are called politicians.
(By the way, I know that “unpossible” is improper – I’m just having fun quoting Ralph Wiggens)
