Thursday, November 02, 2006

Bush's approval ratings.

The BBC has a comprehensive graph of Bush's approval ratings. This is over the last year, and this is over the last five years. It tracks the ratings according to Fox News/Opinion Dynamic, Gallup/USA Today, and CBS News/New York Times polls. Look at the differences, especially this year. The Gallup/USA Today line seems the most reactive -- look at how it jumps up and down from July-September. Maybe USA Today readers are most sensitive to economic factors, such as gas prices.

Conventional wisdoms says that the NYT's respondents would be the most liberal, and they are generally the lowest source for approval ratings of the president. However, they're not as reactive as the Gallup/USA Today respondents; the NYT line is pretty consistent. What could that mean? General disapproval, no matter what the economy does? Also contrary to conventional wisdom, the Fox News respondents were not consistently more approving of the president. I wonder if presidential approval ratings are indicative of Republican party approval ratings -- and if the graph will change after next week.

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