Pew Survey Details Bush's Troubles

The Pew Poll still has 33% of Americans approving of President Bush. The most amazing thing about the Pew survey is that 19% of Americans 'very strongly' approve of the job Bush is doing. Are these people who watch Fox News 24 hours a day and never pick up a newspaper? The way I see it, though, is that the 19% represents the core of Bush's base, and this suggests that Bush has further to fall. Here's the Pew Survey (hat tip to Atrios of Eschaton):

As public approval of George W. Bush languishes at all-time low levels, supporters of the president are increasingly hard to find. In the months following his re-election, roughly half of the country rated Bush's job performance favorably. Today only a third of Americans do so, while more than half (56%) disapprove of his performance. These latest figures are based on a Pew Research Center survey conducted April 27-May 22, among a national sample of 3,204 adults, a large enough survey to allow for a more detailed breakdown of where and how opinion has changed since the election.

While the decline in support transcends ideological and demographic lines, the drop among one group – moderate Republicans – has been especially steep. Among all Republicans, Bush's job approval rating has dropped 20 percentage points since December 2004 (from 89% to 69%). This erosion of support has been most severe among Republicans describing themselves as moderate or liberal, where his rating has dropped 25 points from 81% to 56%.

Given how far to the right that Bush has gone, it is not surprising that support among moderate Republicans has been dropping. If Bush gets somewhere with his Iran initiative, he might get a small bounce in the polls but his overall foreign policy is so dismal, I doubt the bounce would last. Over time, the numbers will continue to drop if Bush 'stays the course.'