Bush gets no poll boost from London terrorism

Ruy Teixeira reports that, contrary to expectation, Bush has received no significant bump in approval ratings as a result of the July 7 terror attacks in London. Perhaps after close to two and a half years of increasingly nasty combat in Iraq Americans are beginning to suspect Bush's efforts to fight terrorism in Iraq aren't having the effect Bush promised.

Bush's poll ratings on the economy rate between 39% and 42% while his ratings on Social Security provide him dismal approval ratings of between 32% and 34%.

As for Bush's ratings on the Iraq war:

"Bush's Iraq approval rating remains mired at 40 percent in the Ipsos-AP poll, and 39 percent in both the CBS News and NBC News polls. Moreover, the CBS News poll finds the following:

1. More than half the public (52 percent) says that US involvement in Iraq is creating more terrorists, compared to just 17 percent who think our involvement is eliminating terrorists.

2. As for how the Iraq war has affected the terror threat to the US, 44 percent now say that war has increased that threat (another 41 percent say there has been no effect), while only 13 percent believe it has decreased the threat.

3. Half the public says that Iraq is not part of the war on terror, compared to 37 percent who it's a major part and 9 percent who say it's a minor part.

4. Most Americans (54 percent) continue to think things are going badly, not well (44 percent), for the US in Iraq.

5. By an overwhelming 63-28 percent, the public says Bush does not have a plan for dealing with the Iraq situation.

6. And, finally, by 55-40, the public says the US should set a timetable for bringing the troops home from Iraq. This underscores the developing interest among the public in a timetable for leaving Iraq, despite Bush's adamant refusal to consider such an option."

This probably explains Rumsfeld's belief that Americans are uninformed.

Ever notice that the Bush administrations' two solutions to any problem are first provide a propaganda blitz to modify public opinion regarding who is at fault for the problem, and second if propaganda doesn't work, they use the military to attack someone?

If neither of those two efforts solve they are left to arrange for their supporters to steal what they can while the stealing is good as they did with the CPA in Iraq throw up their hands and pray for the invisible hand of the market to rescue them.

The Bush administration is providing a great example of complete incompetence in running the government and refusal to take responsibility for anything they do unless they are indicted for it. That form of incompetence and inability to take responsibility appears to be genetic in 21st century Republicans.