Way back on June 7, 2005, you read the following statement on this weblog…
George W. Bush's approval rating is now a full twenty points lower than Bill Clinton's was on the day he was impeached.
How did I figure that? Bush's approval rating was then at 48%. Clinton's, on the day he was impeached, varied between 68% and 73%. For the sake of fairness, I took the low.
Then on March 24, 2006, I pointed out that the gap was now thirty points. Bush was at 38%.
On April 27, 2007, I noted that the gap was at forty points. Bush was at 28%.
On June 5, I predicted that Bush was would hit 45 points below Clinton's impeachment numbers and might even make 50.
Well, I wasn't paying attention and I missed it when he reached 45. In fact, we're probably about to see 50. According to one poll, Bush's approval rating is now at 19%, which is 49 points lower than Bill Clinton's on the day he was impeached. And this is before the full impact of the current financial debacle settles in over this country.
The thing that I find amazing is that Bush's actual popularity rating is probably lower even than that. My friend Roger voted for the guy, hates the guy, thinks Bush has undermined every Conservative principle that made him an appealing candidate in the first place. But if a pollster asked Roger what he thought, he'd say Bush has been the best of all possible Chief Execs. Roger fears that the unpopularity of Bush is translating into negative feelings about those Conservative principles; that to repudiate Bush is to harm the cause of lower taxes, eliminating abortion and gay marriage, being tough with terrorists, etc.
If the pollsters could administer Sodium Pentathol, Bush would probably be in single digit popularity…you know, about where Cheney is without the Sodium Pentathol.