Â鶹´«Ã½AV

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- "When it rains, it pours," seems an apt motto for George W. Bush these days. Not only is his job approval rating down to a record-low level for his administration, but public support for his handling of a variety of issues is washing out, along with perceptions of his leadership qualities.

According to an April 28-30, 2006 USA Today/Â鶹´«Ã½AV poll, just 34% of Americans approve of the overall job Bush is doing is president, while 63% disapprove. Americans' personal views of Bush have tended to follow the path of their ratings of his job performance, only a little more positive. Thus, 39% now say they have a favorable view of him and 60% have an unfavorable view.

Bush Approval vs. Favorable Rating, 2001-2006

Although Bush's job approval rating on handling terrorism -- typically his strongest issue -- is well above his overall job approval rating, there is no single national issue or presidential characteristic for which a majority of Americans rate Bush positively. His current ratings for handling the economy, foreign affairs, and Iraq are on par with his overall rating, while his perceived handling of terrorism gets better reviews (48%), and his ratings on immigration (26%) and energy policy (22%) are somewhat worse. Still, fewer than half of Americans approve of Bush's handling of terrorism.

Latest Bush Approval Ratings

Nearly all of these ratings are lower today than earlier this year. Only Bush's already extremely low rating on immigration did not drop any further. The nine-point decline since January in Bush's overall job rating is especially pronounced, as are his ratings on Iraq and energy policy, which have declined by seven and eight points, respectively.

Change in Percentage Approving of Bush's Job Performance

Bush's once stellar image as a truthful and strong leader has slumped, along with his performance ratings. Today, only about 4 in 10 Americans say Bush shares their values, cares about the needs of people like themselves, is honest and trustworthy, or can manage the government effectively. These ratings are all down by three to eight points, compared with Â鶹´«Ã½AV surveys conducted in January and February.

Change in Percentage Assigning Leadership Qualities to Bush

A Shattered Image

The decline in Bush's image as an effective manager is even worse when looking at the broader trend.

Â鶹´«Ã½AV has not rated Bush on all of these policies and leadership dimensions on the same poll for more than a year. But since January 2005, Bush's various ratings have been updated intermittently on different polls. By consolidating all ratings over four-month periods (and averaging multiple ratings within each period), we can compare Bush's ratings for the past four months with his ratings for the four months spanning May through August 2005.

On this basis, it is clear that Bush's image has dropped most sharply in the area of his competency in running the government. The percentage saying Bush can manage the government effectively fell from 53% between last May and August to 39% between January and April of this year -- a 14-point decline. During the same period, Bush's overall job approval rating fell by seven points.

Substantial declines are also seen in his favorability rating (down nine points), approval in his energy policy (-8), and in perceptions that he is honest and trustworthy (-8).

Somewhat smaller declines are seen in perceptions that Bush "shares your values," or "cares about people like you," as well as in his job approval ratings for Iraq, terrorism, and the economy.

More generally, between last May and August, a majority of Americans still perceived Bush as honest and trustworthy, as an effective manager, and as doing a good job on terrorism. Today, more Americans have a negative than positive view of Bush on these dimensions.

Longer-Term Changes in Bush Ratings

Survey Methods

The latest results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,011 adults, aged 18 and older, conducted April 28-30, 2006. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is ±3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.