Public Opinion Still Down On Bush's Handling Of Katrina, Even After Rove's Blame Game

by Steve

(Graphic courtesy of PollingReport.com)

Let’s get a couple of things straight. First, the White House plan to deal with their criminal negligence in not responding to the Katrina disaster is to 1) blame the Democratic mayor of New Orleans and the Democratic governor of Louisiana, but not the GOP governors or local officials in Mississippi and Alabama; and 2) tout how much money they will be spending to fix the problem they and Mother Nature created.

Second, as for the ongoing GOP talking points that it was all the fault of those Democratic state and local officials because they didn’t ask for Bush’s help and didn’t undertake major efforts on their own first, please read this piece in this morning’s Post about the facts surrounding federal responsibility in this area once Blanco asked for Bush’s help way back on Friday, August 26th.

Third, separate from Bush’s negligence in reacting to the imminent storm, it is also true that what happened to New Orleans is emblematic of how pork and politicians of both parties have shortchanged flood control and disaster prevention projects such as those around the city that should have been funded all these years but instead were under funded so that pork barrel projects sought by both Democrats and Republicans in the state’s congressional delegation would be funded as well. None of this excuses Bush’s reaction to the imminent devastation and loss of life, but if there ever was a time for a reconsideration of pork barrel spending and asking why Alaska got more money for useless projects this year than was allocated for New Orleans levee work, now is that time.

Fourth, we already know that if this storm had happened prior to the 2004 election to largely white people who vote in a critical swing state, Bush’s reaction would have been much different.

Fifth, ignore the right wing lie spread by the right wing blogs and Fox News that local officials proceeded with a local evacuation only after Bush “pleaded” or “insisted” that they do so. In fact, Bush called Governor Blanco just before the Blanco press conference with Mayor Nagin to weigh in on the matter and to ensure that neither Blanco nor Nagin would be able to say that they hadn’t heard from Bush personally.

Lastly, a new set of polls show that Bush’s approval numbers are tanking as a result of Katrina, and that Rove’s recent vigorous work to redirect blame away from the White House and towards Democrats had only a temporary effect. The latest Zogby poll taken through Wednesday night shows that Bush’s approval rating has fallen to 41%, with nearly 60% now disapproving of his performance. And keep in mind this poll was taken in the thick of Rove’s blame game efforts this week. Along those lines, the Survey USA daily tracking poll taken on Wednesday, again in the middle of Rove’s blame the Democrats effort, showed that Bush’s numbers all went south that day:

The number of Americans who 1) disapprove of President Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina, 2) say the Federal Government is not doing enough to help the victims, and 3) say the government's response has been "surprisingly disorganized," all went up in the past 24 hours, according to the latest daily SurveyUSA tracking poll, conducted of 1,200 nationwide adults 9/7/05. 55% of Americans today disapprove of the President's response, as high as the number has been in 8 consecutive days of daily tracking. 56% today say the federal government is not doing enough, up from 54% yesterday. 52% today say the government's response to the hurricane has been surprisingly disorganized, up from 48% yesterday, and as high as the number has been.

And a CBS News poll out today shows that only 38% now approve of Bush's performance in responding to Katrina, but more to the point, the poll also found that less than half of those polled thought Bush had the leadership and ability to respond to crises, the lowest level ever in this poll.

Lastly, despite these poll numbers, we get this from ABC News’ The Note this morning:

The President is still in a heap o' political trouble, the facts on the ground are still hideous, and Mr. Bush still hasn't found his footing or his voice on this story, but his side clearly won the last news cycle in raw political terms. …. The President's poll numbers are mostly holding so far.

I guess the folks over at The Note don’t read, use the Internet, or even watch TV. But they probably don’t have the time to do so, since their noses are stuck so far up Bush’s ass that it would take a proctologist several hours to extract them.