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Bush public support at lowest level
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-04 20:52
Republicans are starting to worry about the 2006 elections and hope Bush can
reverse his slide.
Several senior Republicans who are close to the White House and Rove say
there has been a lot of talk inside and outside the White House about the need
for him to leave, but they're picking up no indication from him or his
associates that it's going to happen — at least anytime soon.
Neither Bush nor Rove has seemed to get the message, the Republicans say.
Democrats have kept up the attack. "The 2006 midterm elections will be our
next opportunity to change the environment of corruption and incompetence in
Washington," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Thursday in a
fundraising letter to Democrats. Reid has called for Rove's resignation and a
"thorough house cleaning" at the White House.
In the AP-Ipsos poll, nearly one in five Republicans disapproved of Bush's
handling of his job, compared with nearly nine in 10 Democrats. Nearly seven in
10 independents disapproved.
Four in five Republicans still back the president.
"I think he's done a wonderful job," said Gloria Bloecher, a Republican from
Sherman, Texas. "He's done wonderful things for the economy. He rescued people
who needed help in Iraq — it was the Christian thing to do. I still trust his
people and the people he picks for the Supreme Court."
The president has lost support from some key groups of constituents over the
past year. He's dropped 16 points in his approval rating with men in that time,
18 points with people who have a high school education or less, 16 points among
Southerners and 13 points among Republicans.
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