First poor Terri Schiavo. Then his holiness Juan Pablo. Now it looks like the Grim Reaper's come for Bush's other pet project, Social Security privatization.
Last night at a top secret meeting of leftist political operatives—okay, a bunch of us Democrats at a pub—we came to the conclusion we'd be wasting our breath talking about what only a few weeks ago had our blood boiling—Bush's attempt to roll back Social Security. And today I see Ruy Teixeira at Donkey Rising is calling the plan "dead."
Here's his analysis of the latest Gallup poll, which says 61% of the public think it's a bad idea:
The shift on the second version of the question and the convergence in negativity between the two versions of the question suggest that the public is becoming less sensitive to question wording when asked about Bush's proposal. They've made up their minds what they think about his proposal (they flat-out don't like it) and any reasonable question wording is going to elicit that strongly negative verdict.
Aside from the goobledygook in that first sentence (don't let this man write any speeches for our next presidential candidate, please!) he seems to have the gist of it: Americans are finally seeing through all that fertilizer they've had shoveled at them the last few years.
The rest of the Gallup poll is full of yet more bad news for Bush, reflecting the way things have generally been going for him lately. His overall approval rating is 48 percent, with 48 percent disapproval, his second worst approval rating since the election (after last Gallup poll's 45 percent). His approval rating on the economy is now 41 percent approval/55 percent disapproval, down substantially from 48/49 in late February. His ratings on Iraq (43/54) and terrorism (57/40) are also down from their late February measurements, though less than the economic rating.
And it gets better:
Final note: all this bad news, including the veritable death-knell for Bush's privatization plan, comes courtesy of a Gallup sample that, as Steve Soto points out, is +4 Republican on party ID, a distribution inconsistent with almost all other recent polls, which have been showing a Democratic edge. So perhaps these results, bad as they are for Bush, may actually be understating his difficulties a bit.
Of course, lame ducks don't have to worry about poll numbers, so I doubt anyone at 1600 Pennsylvania is worried. Besides, with Laura away, George can leave the toilet seat up and eat all the pretzels he wants. Baseball season is starting up, the Rangers have a chance to win their season-opener series tonight, and I hear the Grim Reaper's looking to be traded.
