Bush is unpopular

The Washington Post is making a big deal out of a new poll:

For the first time in his presidency a majority of Americans question the integrity of President Bush, and growing doubts about his leadership have left him with record negative ratings on the economy, Iraq and even the war on terrorism, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows.

On almost every key measure of presidential character and performance, the survey found that Bush has never been less popular with the American people. Currently 39 percent approve of the job he is doing as president, while 60 percent disapprove of his performance in office -- the highest level of disapproval ever recorded for Bush in Post-ABC polls.

I don't care how you look at it, those are fairly grim numbers. In fact, I would go so far to venture that Bush will not be re-elected. More seriously, what does the poll matter? Is the presidency about, you know, actually accomlishing things? Or is it about being popular? If you take the former position Bush isn't doing too bad. Powerlineblog makes a related point:

I think perhaps the Democrats in the Senate are trying to distract their activist base from the reality of their own impotence. Vital events are, of course, transpiring in the Senate right now, including ANWR drilling--approved today--and, most notably, President Bush's Supreme Court nominations. Nothing is more important to the Democratic base than preserving the liberal orientation of the Supreme Court. But the President has now dealt two hammer blows to liberal control of the Court--the only branch of the federal government still under liberal control--in the form of the Roberts and Alito nominations.

You could also add CAFTA to the list of noted accomplishments so far this year. And yet even as their agenda gets hammered liberals are in a celebratory mood over Bush's poll results. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns. This shouldn't be surpring in the least, however, as these are people that continually place style and symbolism over substance -- much like the last Democratic President, Bill Clinton.

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In fact, Clinton is the perfect comparison. According to wikipedia Clinton had exactly 3 major legislative accomplishments in his second term: a tax cut, a digital copyrights bill and, interestingly, the Iraq Liberation Act -- a right-wing agenda! (and yes, the economy was good, in fact very similar to where it is now) The rest of the time Clinton concerned himself with the latest opinion polls and trying to popular. For his efforts Clinton saw modest Democratic gains in the House and Senate in the 1998 elections and earned himself the adulation of a now well-known White House intern.

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Meanwhile Bush has spent his second term racking up accomplishments. Now, you could argue that Bush's unpopularity will come back to haunt the GOP in next year's midterm elections. Perhaps. But let's consider a few things. First, the election will not only turn on how popular Republicans are, but also how popular Democrats are. After all, let us not forget, Bush was not wildly popular when he was re-elected. He didn't have to be, he just had to be more popular than John Kerry -- not exactly the tallest order.

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It is by no means assured that the Dems will take advantage of GOP bungling. Unlike Republicans, who were swept to power in 1994 based not only on widespread dissatisfation with Clinton and Congressional Democrats but also the Contract with America, Democrats have no coherent agenda. They have little in the way of firm ideas. Perhaps most importantly they still appear beholden to their loony base. Don't take my word for it, here are the words of Madeleine Albright:

''The Democrats are basically supportive of the troops."

That speaks volumes when your party is so completely wacko, so out of touch that you can't even say "We wholeheartedly support the troops." I mean, in U.S. politics that's akin to saying "Democrats basically support families."

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Moving on, in order to bet on the Dems next year you also have to count on a few other trends:

*That Iraq will be equally unstable or worse.

*That more White House officials will be indicted

*That the economy will worsen

Those are bets I'm not willing to make. In fact, I'd be willing to wager the opposite on all of them. Here are some trends I see:

*DeLay will be cleared of any wrongdoing

*The economy will improve

*A drawdown of troops from Iraq will begin to take place

*The federal deficit will decline

We shall see.

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Update: James Taranto notes that Sen. Joe Biden also admits the Dems have serious issues:

[Biden] told the heavily Democratic crowd that Democrats have become elitist. He noted that some Democrats have questioned why he wears an American flag on his lapel.

Not good.