Honzo October 16th, 2005

According to the Washinton Post, there are lots o’ Scandals a brewing right now. This has lead to the urge to gloat
by some that are opposed to the Republicans. Others maintain that this
is typical of the first year of a reelection of a president and say
that dispite the lowest approval ratings yet for Bush, “Every president since 1963 has had approval ratings, at one time or another during his administration, at least five points ⁱ lower than Bush’s current nadir¹.”

Here are the lowest approval ratings for the last seven presidents ²:

1. Johnson: 35%
2. Nixon: 24%
3. Ford: 37%
4. Carter: 28%
5. Reagan: 35%
6. Bush I: 29%
7. Clinton: 37%
8. Bush II: 39.5%

On a personal level, while I am frustrated with the lack of accoplishment on several issues, mainly Iraq, Social Security Reform, Tax Code Reform, Gay Marriage and Illegal Immigration. However, I don’t see the “winds of change”
in favor of the Democrats and the people taking their country back.
While political power may shift back to the Democrats, I don’t know
that it will. The same and greater frustrations lie in their camp as
well. For me and my political goals for the United States, I do not see
them as a viable alternative. This lack of a viable alternative leads
some to think that conervatives will remain in power as things get better in the counrty next year:

Things could change, of course, but my guess is that the
next year’s news will be better for the administration and for
Republicans than the past year’s. The price of gas has likely peaked;
Iraq will continue to stabilize, and troops will come home; absent more
natural disasters, the economy will resume its steady growth; Harriet
Miers will be confirmed and start voting with conservative majorities
on the Court. Most likely, liberal dreams of the end of the
conservative era will have to be deferred again.

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Footnotes:

ⁱ
The 41.5 figure from the quote was the average approval rating at time
of the post, at the time of this post the average approval rating was
39.5 and the the lowest of them is 37%.

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