Bush Popular At Being Unpopular

W's negative approval rating is near record territory, at 65% (i.e., 65% of poll respondents state that they do not approve of the job Bush is doing as President). According to the Washington Post, only one President in the modern era of opinion poll approval ratings (going back to 1938--so we don't know what folks thought of Calvin Coolidge or Millard Fillmore) has gone lower, and that was Richard Nixon on the eve of his resignation. (See "Disfavor For Bush Hits Rare Heights"). (Truman also got up to 65% in his presidency.)

Bush is also closing in on another record for unpopularity: longest period of time with a disapproval rating exceeding 50%. Bush has been there for two years now and only Truman has him beat--but not for much longer.

Perhaps Bush was thinking about his place in the record books yesterday--i.e., hoping to set the record--when he used his typically convoluted "logic" to argue that al-Queda in Iraq is as big a threat to the U.S. as Bin Laden's main group. (See "Al-Qaeda in Iraq is Part of Network, Bush Says.") Let's see, which is more dangerous: the Al Qaeda group that launched 9/11 and has established a haven in Pakistan because Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc. decided that the "War on Terror" didn't require devoting sufficient military resources to eradicate them; or the Sunni Iraqi group that didn't even exist until we invaded Iraq, and which is focused on restoring Sunni power in Iraq?

Here's hoping Bush sets the record.