It has taken years of effort and a lot of hard work, but George W. Bush can finally claim "Mission Accomplished": By at least one measure, the president is now more intensely disliked than Richard Nixon ever was.
In a Gallup poll released this week, 50 percent of Americans say they "strongly disapprove" of the job Bush is doing as president. That's the highest strong-disapproval number Gallup has ever seen, besting by two percentage points the 48 percent of Americans who said they "strongly disapproved" of Nixon's job performance in February 1974.
Nixon resigned six months later.
Based on a Gallup chart, it appears that something like 15 percent of Americans still "strongly approve" of Bush's job performance. Roughly twice as many Americans believe in astrology.
The president's horoscope today: "Stick with what you know today -- new people and projects are more trouble than they're worth. That doesn't mean you need to reject them forever, though. Check back in after a few days or more have passed."
Yes, Mr. President, check back in after a few days or more have passed. In the meantime, here's some solace: Gallup says your 50 percent strong-disapproval number is statistically "equivalent" to Nixon's 48 percent, and neither the current Congress nor the current Supreme Court seems inclined to bring things to a head in the way that their counterparts did 33 years ago.
Salon>War Room>Tim Grieve
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