I don’t like to be rude, but isn’t this still really, really low?

Daniel-

Not low at all, when compared to (a) Richard Nixon’s numbers after his "I am not a crook" speech, or (b) approval of amnesty for pedophiles.

Why must you be such a gloomy Gus?

Just how ignurt you gonna be, boys? This is from a Gallup report:

Four presidents hit bottom below the 30% approval level -- Harry Truman (23%), Richard Nixon (24%), Jimmy Carter (28%), and the elder George Bush (29%). Four others bottomed out below 40% -- Lyndon Johnson (35%), Gerald Ford (37%), Ronald Reagan (35%), and Bill Clinton (37%). Kennedy’s low point was 56%; Eisenhower’s, 49%.

Gee, Mr. Literal, aren’t you going to rant about my pedophile joke, while you’re at it? I would just like to say, it’s a good day when you guys find comfort by placing GWB in company like Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. How does he do next to Typhoid Mary and Alger Hiss?

Good response Dain!

"This just in: After months of subterranean approval ratings reflecting incompetence, confusion, dishonesty, and drastic decrements in the quality of every aspect of life that he touches, George Bush’s ratings recently rose to the levels obtained by presidents that Republicans hate more than a noisy gathering of gay Socialist minorities. Also helping Bush look "less than absolutely pathetic" were two Republican Presidents: The first being the President who single-handedly plunged the country into decades of mistrust and cynicism, and the other being the one who pardoned him. It’s a great day!""

You know, Fung, that Bush-hatred’s gonna burn you up. The point I was making is that MOST Presidents in the "era of polling" have had "subterranean" ratings...even Mr. Popular, Slick Willie. Kennedy died too young to get himself very deeply embroiled in nasty overseas situations (excepting, of course, the Bay of Pigs & the Missle Crisis), but every other President who dared to go to war has been slammed. And who knows, if they caught Osama tomorrow and Iraq settled down, Bush could easily end up being one of the most popular guys ever to hold the office. I hope that happens, and not just because it would irritate the hell out of you (although I wouldn’t mind that at all).

Hell, even Abe Lincoln was worried about the 1864 election, and that was without the South.

Dain, where is that poll? I’m curious.
If memory serves, Clinton was in that basement (6-8 points higher than the current guy’s basement) for a day or two, as opposed to say, a solid year. So the comparison is disingenuous.
The poll we’re talking about is only useful as an indirect metric of the entire Republican party, and those elections will be decided on a case-by-case, district-by-district basis. Oh, and by the guy who runs Diebold.

No, I wouldn’t expect Clinton to be "in the hole" for long...he spent his time diddlin’ little girls and otherwise sitting on his butt (e.g., tucking his tail and running from Somalia, blowing up aspirin factories, and so on). Weathercocks are popular, but they make lousy leaders. Regardless, I doubt you Dems could vote Bush out of office even today :)

The latest NY Times poll has Bush’s approval ratings at 37%.

Dain, I know perfectly well what point you were trying to make, and you know well what I was saying. We’ll see who is right. The only reason for any candidate not to worry is if he or she has found a way to illegally affect the outcome.

Oh, Fung, are you part of the tinfoil hat brigade? The "Diebold Conspiracy"...lions & tigers & bears, oh my! The only voter fraud I know about was on the part of Democrats...turns out dead people can vote...I guess being Liberal gives you access to a politically-active afterlife.

Hey! I’m not accusing anyone. All I suggested was that, in a fair election, any candidate has cause to worry about the outcome. Geez! Touchy!

The moment Dems win a close and highly contested election dain will suddenly discover within himself an honest concern about electronic voting machines, how easily they can be tampered with, and how there’s no way to know that one’s vote is registered internally as intended when pushing the buttons (as in, there’s no paper record).

The "tinfoil hat brigade" smear is extremely lame. No one need make any accusations or entertain any conspiracy theories about past elections to be concerned with how future elections are run. I presume everyone can agree that it’s vital to our democracy that we can trust the elections system to give us an accurate result of the will of the electorate. An important part of that is to ensure that the systems and equipment can’t be tampered with.

Sadly, the impression I get from dain is that elections fraud is only real if and when it’s perpetuated by Democrats. What a principled position.

Nope, all I said was that it’s the only outright voter fraud I knew about. Finding all those ballots in the Oregon Governor’s race, and dead people on the voter rolls around the country. And then, of course, asking for recounts ONLY in Democratic-heavy areas...etc. Don’t even get me started on the Kennedy-Nixon election in Illinois!

" Nope, all I said was that it’s the only outright voter fraud I knew about."

And the evidence in Flordia came mostly from Black people, which doesn’t count.

Yea, play the race card, because if it came from black people it must be the truth.

So far as I know, there is no verification of such claims...whereas the votes of Donald Duck and Al Capone have been registered in Democrat precincts.