How low can he go? That’s the question many Republicans are asking today in the wake of a new poll showing President Bush at his lowest approval rating yet. According to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, only three in 10 Americans approve of the job Bush is doing—a number tying the low point of his father in July 1992, four months before the elder President Bush lost his bid for a second term. According to the poll, it is the third-lowest approval rating of any president in 50 years—only Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter were viewed less favorably. The findings show that Bush lost even more ground with his base, as barely half of the Republicans polled think Bush is doing a good job.
In other words, it was more bad news for a White House struggling to regain its footing on the eve of a midterm election considered pivotal for the Republican Party.
For the White House, there are two big questions: will Bush’s approval rating dip into the much dreaded 20 percent range, and how will they dig out? Perhaps most disappointing for administration officials wasn’t Bush’s low approval rating itself, but the low ratings overall for the issues the White House has tapped in its efforts to win back momentum. Indeed, the poll found poor support for virtually every single agenda issue Bush has pushed in recent months as a part of regaining his groove in his second term. Only 28 percent approve of Bush’s handling of the economy. Just 29 percent think Bush is doing good job handling the war in Iraq. About a quarter of those polled approve of how Bush has tackled immigration issues. More depressing for this White House: just 13 percent approve of Bush’s handling of rising gas prices, an issue the president and congressional Republicans have struggled to deal with in recent weeks. According to the poll, 57 percent of those surveyed said they trusted Democrats over Republicans to find a solution on the issue.
So what does the White House do now? Even before today’s poll, administration officials were weighing yet another retooling of the message to woo so-called suburban voters. Last Thursday, 18 House Republicans met at the White House with Karl Rove, the president’s top political adviser, to come up with an agenda of less divisive policy ideas that could score points with voters in the suburbs, both Democrats and Republicans. Instead of focusing on contentious topics like immigration or a proposed ban on same-sex marriage, Rove and the lawmakers strategized on an agenda centered on more simple legislative proposals that could be an easy win for the GOP. Among the ideas: tax incentives for college-savings accounts, more funding for local police working to crack down on gangs and the creation of a federal database to track sex offenders. The group also talked about laws to combat urban sprawl—a huge issue in states like Illinois, Ohio and Arizona, home to some of the most closely fought House and Senate races in the country.
“The idea was to set simple goals that would allow us to show that we can get something done,” one House GOP lawmaker, who declined to be named while discussing a private meeting, told NEWSWEEK. “We need to overcome the ideas out there that we are in a total stalemate. We need some victories, even small ones.”
Looking for the small victories is a definite change of pace for a president known to focus on sweeping ideas like Social Security reform or an immigrant-worker program. But with poll numbers inching toward historic lows, the White House has to do something to reverse the tide, not only to improve the president’s fortunes but those of his party, as well. According to the GOP lawmaker, both Bush and Rove have reminded Republicans in recent meetings that this administration doesn’t relish the idea of a “lonely victory,” a reference to Bush’s statements in 2004 that he was committed to doing his part to maintain a GOP majority in Congress.
For Bush, his pledge to help Republicans this fall is as much about party loyalties as it is self-preservation. With Democrats threatening a spate of investigations into everything from the handling of the war in Iraq to the CIA leak scandal should they win control of Congress, Bush’s ability to cement a legacy beyond record low poll numbers and an unpopular war is at risk.
Revisiting 9/11
It is the seminal moment of his presidency: the moment when chief of staff Andy Card leaned over to whisper in his ear “America is under attack.” There have been so many accounts of that morning in the classroom in Sarasota, Fla., it is hard to believe there could be a new version of those minutes after the second plane hit the World Trade Center.
Yet new details emerged this week from President Bush himself in a little-noticed interview with the German newspaper Bild. When asked what was the most awful moment of his presidency, Bush started talking about 9/11 and the instant he heard from Card. “On a situation like that, it takes a period to understand exactly what was going on,” Bush said. “When somebody says ‘America is under attack’—you’ve got to fully understand what that meant. And the information coming was haphazard at best for a while. We weren’t sure if the State Department got hit. I’d heard the White House had got attacked. Of course, I was worried [about] that—my family was here.”
According to two authoritative versions of events, and Bush’s earlier media interviews, the president’s first thoughts sounded very different. One version, as told to Bob Woodward in his book "Bush at War," is a tale of resolve and immediate decision-making. “A photo of that moment is etched for history,” Woodward writes of Card whispering to the president. “Bush remembers exactly what he was thinking: 'They had declared war on us and I made up my mind at that moment that we were going to war'.”
Another version, as recounted by the 9/11 Commission, cites the president as saying “his instinct was to project calm, not to have the country see an excited reaction at a moment of crisis.” The first reference to his concern for his family comes when he boards Air Force One, after leaving the school 40 minutes later. “He boarded the aircraft, asked the Secret Service about the safety of his family, and called the Vice President,” the 9/11 Commission reported.
The last time Bush spoke at length about that morning was in the middle of the 2004 election, after Michael Moore’s flame-throwing movie “Fahrenheit 9/11” and John Kerry’s criticism of the president’s attack-day hesitation. When Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly asked what he was thinking in the classroom, Bush answered “I was thinking America was under attack. I was collecting my thoughts, and I wasn’t about to panic a bunch of kids.”
The reason for Bush’s interview with a German publication? The White House visit by Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose presence sparked a new thaw in U.S.-German relations. Sitting in the White House residence last week, Bush asked Merkel about her childhood in communist East Germany. “It was very interesting,” Bush told German TV. “It also gave me a chance to get a glimpse into her soul.” Bush made an almost identical comment about Russian President Vladimir Putin after their first meeting in Slovenia in 2001. Given the tense state of Putin’s friendship with Bush now, Merkel might want to ease off on the personal anecdotes.