Big surprise: Bush has lowest approval ever

This is not an incredibly exciting development. I mean, he's not up for re-election and with Repubs in control of Congress I'm guessing Bush would have to be caught on video making sweet love to Satan himself before he'd be impeached. The important issue is how this impacts Republicans in the mid-terms.

The poll suggests that most Americans wonder whether Bush is up to the job. The survey, conducted Monday through Wednesday of 1,000 people, found that just 37 percent approve of his overall performance. That is the lowest of his presidency

Bush's job approval among Republicans plummeted from 82 percent in February to 74 percent, a dangerous sign in a midterm election year when parties rely on enthusiasm from their most loyal voters. The biggest losses were among white males.

On issues, Bush's approval rating declined from 39 percent to 36 percent for his handling of domestic affairs and from 47 percent to 43 percent on foreign policy and terrorism. His approval ratings for dealing with the economy and Iraq held steady, but still hovered around 40 percent.

Again, I don't know what it would take to convince certain people that Bush is dead wrong about most everything. At least a majority is able to agree that despite our "growing economy" the situation for most of America stinks. I still can't believe that anywhere near half of people approve of his foreign policy. Maybe they're the suckers who still believe that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11 and that Abu Ghraib and Gitmo are necessary for fighting the war on terrorism.

Anyway, back to the question at hand. Does this enhance Democratic (and/or independent) chances in the mid-terms? The article says:

The AP-Ipsos poll, which has a margin of error of 3 percentage points, gives Republicans reason to worry that they may inherit Bush's political woes. Two-thirds of the public disapproves of how the GOP-led Congress is handling its job and a surprising 53 percent of Republicans give Congress poor marks.

By a 47-36 margin, people favor Democrats over Republicans when they are asked who should control Congress.

While the gap worries Republicans, it does not automatically translate into GOP defeats in November, when voters will face a choice between local candidates rather than considering Congress as a whole.

Yes, the majority don't think that Republicans should control Congress. Does that mean that people think their Republican shouldn't be in Congress? Well, if you look at the DeLay situation, for example, you can see that even this corrupt, morally bankrupt, money-grubbing, caught-red-handed-in-the-cookie-jar piece of crap still wins most of his own party. Sure, no Democrat is going to vote for him, and yes, a sizable chunk of his party abandoned him...but even so the election is being forecast as a toss-up (link from DailyDeLay).

As a result, CQPolitics.com has changed its Election Forecaster rating on the 22nd District general election to No Clear Favorite — a toss-up. It had previously been rated as Leans Republican (closely contested), mainly because of DeLay’s legal problems.

Now don't get me wrong; I think DeLay is actually going to lose. Not only for the analysis given by CQPolitics.com, but because there must be some justice in the universe (at least from time to time).

While DeLay’s ability to unify the district’s usual Republican majority is open to question, Lampson can expect a nearly unanimous vote among Democrats, who may be energized to turn out by what appears to be an unprecedented possibility of defeating DeLay.

So it looks like he could really be taken out by Nick Lampson. That's cause for celebration, but also for a pause. If you think about how that's what it takes to have an incumbent Republican thrown out (again, for him to get videotaped in bed with Satan), how many races are the Democrats going to lose? It's like the Republicans have such thorough mind control that almost nothing can break the conditioning. Anyway, I'll let Xanthippas and Adam analyze individual races. I'm really just angry at how Bush's ratings are still floating so high when he's such an obvious idiot and has done such damage to our country and how DeLay might possibly still win his seat when he's the biggest pile of manure in Texas. People, send a dollar or something to Nick Lampson's campaign, or do something to help him win. DeLay is a stain in the shorts of Texas, so let's bleach him out.