New Poll: Americans Losing Faith In Leadership
New Poll: Americans Losing Faith In Leadership
The Newsweek poll released yesterday showing Bush’s approval at a record-low 33 percent also demonstrates a “larger loss of faith” in government leadership across the board. Here are some of the other highlights:
– 52 percent of Americans believe the Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert covered up Mark Foley’s actions
– For the first time ever in a Newsweek poll, a majority of Americans (58 percent) now believe the Bush administration knowingly misled the American people in building its case for war against Saddam Hussein
– 53 percent believe it was a mistake to go to war at all, the first time the Newsweek poll has registered a majority in that camp.
– Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s approval rating has fallen to just 30 percent, and more Americans believe he should resign than remain, 48 percent vs. 37 percent
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And what will Bush say?
“Oh, I, well, yeah, I think that, you know, this newsweek poll is biased, because they’ve done this before, you know.”
We should be shooting for 100s on those questions though.
October 8th, 2006 at 9:40 amRumsfeld at 30%? That pretty much confirms brain damage to 30% of the population.
October 8th, 2006 at 9:41 amRepublican leaders should take a sobering look at the fact that a majority of Americans believe, rightly so, that the Bush administration deliberately deceived this nation into illegally taking this country into war, kiling thousands of Americans and Iraqis and grievously wounding thousands more. One wonders how long it will be until Senator John Warner takes that long walk to the White House in order to persuade Bush, Cheney, Hastert, Rumsfeld, Rice, et al, to resign for the good of the country.
October 8th, 2006 at 9:45 amI never did understand why politicians felt they could say freely and smugly…..”I don’t follow polls.” Really. I’ve always shaken my heads. Why have the American people not realized that polls are us and they are basically giving us the finger when they say this. Polls are one tool of Democracy. The slime leadership over the years has conditioned us to think it’s somehow “strong” or “good” that they DO NOT LISTEN TO POLLs. I disagree very strongly.
October 8th, 2006 at 9:47 amIf I were a leader I would say I listen to everything. It’s even worse when they say, “I’m not swayed by the polls.” Meaning, I don’t give a rats ass what the American people think
“If I fold up my tent and leave,” Dennis Hastert told her, “then where does that leave us? If the Democrats sweep, then we’d have no ability to fight back and get our message out.”
Note to Hasert, well, then you’d know how it felt to be a Democrat over the past 6 years. Oh, you’ve had your chance to get your message out. Unbrideld neo-con ideals acted out completely and look what it wrought. Absoulte failure at every turn.
And if the Democrats do take a seat at the table in November, the poor Republicans wil then only in control of 2 branches of government…woe is they. Anything other than controlling all of the government makes them the underdog. So put upon….
October 8th, 2006 at 9:55 amThere’s one poll that’s coming up November 7th that is the important one.
And if it should come about that these (reoublicans) theiving, repulsive, corrupt, sick, war-mongering, profiteering, scumbags should prevail there should be a march on Washington the likes of which this nation has never seen and we can begin the next American revolution!
October 8th, 2006 at 10:01 amI sincerely hope the Bushites, including HasBeenStert, think these polls are just a goddamn piece of paper.
October 8th, 2006 at 10:04 amOn Nov 8 they’ll understand the depth of the disgust the American voting public has for their “governance”.
Bush/Cheney don’t listen to election results, either – that is how these criminals got into the government in 2000. They don’t listen to intelligence reports or briefing papers. They don’t listen to anything unless it is what they want to hear.
October 8th, 2006 at 10:06 amToday it’s 33%.
What kills me is that in a week or two it could be 36%. I understand the zombified cult followers who have swallowed it whole and who will never let go, who will never face reality.
But, who in the hell are the people that in a week or two will decide after all, that George Bush is doing a good job, now?
October 8th, 2006 at 10:10 ammparker -
October 8th, 2006 at 10:11 amThe force has a powerful influence on the weak minded…
These are not the leaders you are looking for.
To Gonnuts — so, if the Republicans should retain the their control over the Senate and the House by a lawful vote of the people, you would be in favor of disregarding the vote of the people? Hmm. Is that the way democracy works?
Note: The opinion of the majority is still opinion. If 95% of the people in America believed that Elvis is still alive, it wouldn’t make it so. We can vote to elect people to office. But we can’t vote on reality. So if a majority of people believe that Bush intentionally deceived us in going to war, that does not make it so. Only the evidence, accurately interpreted makes it so. Even the unanimous decision of a jury does not prove that a person is guilty of a crime. Advancements in dna research have demonstrated that juries have been wrong.
Opinions are important, but opinions can be wrong.
October 8th, 2006 at 10:13 am“Americans Losing Faith In Leadership”
Good. For the top is rotten!
October 8th, 2006 at 10:43 amI think the polls fluctuate by 4-5% because they don’t ask the same people each time.
Ity’s not that someone changes their mind in a week that he’s okay, it’s just that the next time they ask, they’ve gotten a couple more idiots than the last time.
Personally, I think the people they are polling are people who have home phones, who aren’t at work in the middle of the day, and who are probably not watching the news.
October 8th, 2006 at 10:45 amLosing Faith.
The Neocons long ago lost faith in the value of diplomacy. We now operate like gophers viewing the world from thesecurity of our hole. We learn all we can about foreign entities through covert actions, information, and opinion, instead of correctly viewing and weighting the OVERT data and interests. We have lost our ability to influence in an open manner for any adversarial state.
We lost our moral advantage by allowing torture, or others to torture in our name. Republicans lost there moral advantage by Narcicism over protection.
October 8th, 2006 at 11:03 am…polls are us… Polls are one tool of Democracy…
Comment by s — October 8, 2006 @ 9:47 am
i thought so too… so i don’t understand why people would lie to pollsters… it seems self defeating…
October 8th, 2006 at 11:07 amWell…it is about time that the American people are realizing the monsters that our apponted leaders are.
October 8th, 2006 at 11:19 amJerry Propst
It doesn’t prove that Bush misled anybody, but it does prove that a large section of America’s population feels misled by Bush. This means that America is, hopefully, about to do something about it.
My feeling is that Bush has done you guys a lot of harm, he has wrecked your country on its economy, ethics and the enviroment.
Economically America bares all of the warning signs of a bubble economy: America’s deficit is high, most of America’s people are hopelessly in debt, and while the unemployment rate of 4.7% looks good if you don’t look too closely, the fact is that new job creation has not kept pace with America’s population growth.
Ethically, America has abandoned habeas corpus in a big way with those military tribunals, the nuclear technology deal with India demonstrated once and for all that America will not honour a treaty if it doesn’t feel like it, and America has gone from being a state which does not torture, to a state which is becoming famous for torturing innocent people.
Enviromentally, Bush has repeatedly made pledges to boost funding to envirmental causes and then reneged on those pledges and cut funding to things such as researching geo-thermal and hydro-electric power sources.
Now a poll on any of these issues would not be a proof of any of them, but they would be a proof of whether Americans care, or don’t care, about the issues and whether pushing those issues would be a worthwhile means of getting America’s attention.
October 8th, 2006 at 11:22 amAnother area of progression of Losing of Faith – What is the Iraq Conflict about?
What has been promoted: It is the war on terrorism. There are insurgents that are agaist the Democratic Government. Wipe out the insurgency; the Government winds and terror is wiped out.
What we will come to understand: The violence in Iraq is vastly not an insurgency. It IS sectarian. The Kurds are really no interested in a united Iraq; they are interested in Kurdish nationalism. Sunni’s and Shiites will continue violence on each other; their democratic coalition is loosely based. Poor living conditions and lack of a stable economy is fueling discontent and a mindset that is easily turned to blame and violence.
What ever government Iraq becomes, they will be strongly influenced by their stronger neighbors – namely Iran and Syria.
Better to wage our influence humanitarily and diplomatically.
October 8th, 2006 at 11:23 amSome interesting facts:
100% of the public do not know the complete story.
0% of the ThinkProgress staff care to disclose the previous story.
Typical democrat style, kick out as many republicans in power while the story is still hot without having enough evidence to do so. Just wait until Democrats are in the Whitehouse, I will be there to blog every single mistake the administration makes.
October 8th, 2006 at 12:38 pmMr. Wilson, from your lips to Gods ears!!!! Hopefully we can give you that opportunity in January 2009!
October 8th, 2006 at 12:57 pmagreed jules… and, mr.wilson – know that TP will be there also…
October 8th, 2006 at 1:05 pmand, what’s more, the dems know this too…
#19 – I can’t wait til Dems are in power too – we’ll be able to see then how the Rebups lie, twist, whine, and ankle-bite them, as they forever have, thus proving what a shameless liar and enormous hypocrite you are.
October 8th, 2006 at 1:26 pmTypical democrat style, kick out as many republicans in power while the story is still hot without having enough evidence to do so.
Comment by Don Wilson
And I’ll bet you were seriously disturbed by the whole Clinton witch-hunt, too!
Hypocrite.
October 8th, 2006 at 2:27 pmSo what! Nothing’s going to change anyway.
October 8th, 2006 at 4:59 pmI remember the election of 2004.
Well — what I really remember is a day or two after the election of 2004. The attack on Falluja, and a few outrageous things, like not allowing the Red Cross to enter. Just brutal collective punishment against a civillian population in retaliation for the deaths of 4 mercenaries. What the military has become, in a nutshell: enforcer of corporate greed.
Remember to get out and vote.
October 8th, 2006 at 9:15 pmTypical democrat style, kick out as many republicans in power while the story is still hot without having enough evidence to do so.
You flaming idiot. The Dems don’t have the power to kick anybody out.
October 8th, 2006 at 10:47 pmPonies for everyone!!
October 8th, 2006 at 10:55 pmSo what! Nothing’s going to change anyway.
Comment by John — October 8, 2006 @ 4:59 pm
not if you don’t help, it won’t… and you’re not helping with that attitude!
October 9th, 2006 at 12:01 am.
.
yay! ponies! …
John
If you honestly believe voting Democrat won’t change anything, vote independent or one of the smaller parties. The failures of the Bush government are bad enough, to make voting for the Republicans near inexcusable.
October 9th, 2006 at 2:57 am[...] It’s election time, so you know it’s time to pull the fear card. Only this time, Cheney is “pulling it out” behind closed doors. The Newsweek poll released yesterday showing Bush’s approval at a record-low 33 percent also demonstrates a “larger loss of faith†in government leadership across the board. Here are some of the other highlights: [...]
October 9th, 2006 at 9:49 amDon Wilson -
Are you kidding or are you just “regular stupid?”
October 9th, 2006 at 10:27 amI was just listening to local Republican talk radio. Here was their take:
71% of people on the national no call list are conservatives therefore phone polls are skewed to represent liberals. Then the question was asked if the media can even be trusted. So this poll is meaningless.
I would like to know how they found the 71% figure? By a phone poll?
October 9th, 2006 at 11:13 amThe real lesson here, of course being missed by just about everyone, is that this is exactly what Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell breeds. The same way as the United States military adopts a incomprehensible policy that forces gay servicemembers to lie about their sexual orientation in violation of every tenet the military teaches in terms of honor and integrity, so too does the antigay agenda of the so-called religious right and the Republican Party demand the closet of the complicit gays that pepper its ranks.
For Republicans, the Mark Foley scandal is as much about the embarrassment of having a high ranking homosexual in its party as it is a predator in its fold, for each are equally reprehensible to them. For Democrats, it’s more about revenge on the Republicans than it is about questioning their supposed values to begin with. For right-wing fanatics, it’s more about equating homosexuality with pedophilia than it is about protecting allegedly vulnerable pages. And for gay activists, it’s more about clamoring to defend itself from those very accusations and the likely vilification by Republicans than it is about simply distancing itself from a congressman whose only possible crime is being a predator, not a homosexual, and for whom the issue is no more relevant than it is for Alcoholics Anonymous.
October 9th, 2006 at 2:40 pm
[...] New Poll: Americans Losing Faith In LeadershipThink Progress, DC - Oct 8, 2006… Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld s approval rating has fallen to just 30 percent, and more Americans believe he should resign than remain, 48 percent vs. … [...]
October 9th, 2006 at 4:25 pmI disagree here, The neo-cons put themselves in the high and mighty position from which they have fallen. It is they that have decreed themselves the moral majority.
Revenge has nothing to do with fall the self-righteous have incurred. It is their self righteousness that got them into this mess in the first place.
GOD does not play politics, let this be a lesson to those that think he does.
October 9th, 2006 at 7:00 pmNotice Exley, Seth, Paul never show up these type of threads?
October 9th, 2006 at 7:01 pmBwahahhahahaaaa!!
It’s about time they(Americans) wake up from their long slumber.
October 9th, 2006 at 11:55 pmWe can’t complain that what we, as a people, did was wrong. WE had nothing to do with Bush getting into office…. He was “Appointed by GOD”, remember? God told him to blah blah blah. He has continually gone against what the constitution was written for and basically told us that it is in our best interest. WE all have to stand together and get him out of office along with all the others (most all politicians) that choose their own wants over the peoples’ needs.
October 10th, 2006 at 2:20 pm[...] vast bulk of the country believes they were deliberately deceived about the nature of the threat posed by Iraq. And a principal reason why we ended up in Iraq is [...]
March 24th, 2008 at 7:49 pm