Losing ground, even in the likability department

US NEWS

Things aren't getting any easier for President Bush. Even his good-old-boy personality, which once was so appealing to so many Americans, seems to be wearing thin. His underlying problem, pollsters say, is that growing numbers of Americans question his competence and credibility.

Only 38 percent of Americans approve of Bush's job performance, and--just as important--only 39 percent have positive feelings about him, according to an NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll. "What you're seeing is a negative cycle," says a senior GOP strategist, "with bad news feeding on bad news, and it's having an effect."

At this point the direction of the polls--down--seems pretty well established, and Democrats contend that there has been a fundamental public shift in attitudes. "People used to see him as the kind of guy they'd like to have a beer with," says Matt Hogan, a Democratic public-opinion analyst for Democracy Corps. "They don't see him that way anymore. It used to be that while they didn't necessarily agree with his policies, they felt he talked straight and they could trust him.


They don't trust him anymore." Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg says only 41 percent of Americans today feel warmly about Bush, compared with 50 percent who are cool to him.

Just after the 9/11 attacks, 78 percent felt warmly about Bush; only 13 percent were cool toward him. "People don't like Bush now," Greenberg says. "There's a culture around him that is driving people away."

Day after day, the president's credibility has been under assault, even when the facts are in dispute. Last week, the Washington Post reported that in 2003 Bush declared that U.S. troops in Iraq had captured two trailers outfitted as mobile biological weapons labs even though a secret intelligence report at the time found the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons.


White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan attacked the Post report as "reckless," saying it was a preponderance of intelligence, now seen to be erroneous, that led Bush to make the statement about the Iraqi trailers, not a desire to mislead anyone.


In another episode, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported in the New Yorker that Bush has accelerated Pentagon planning for attacks on Iran's nuclear sites, including potential use of nuclear "bunkerbuster" bombs, a story the administration tried to shoot down as "speculation."

All this came on the heels of the disclosure that Bush authorized the declassification and release of information about prewar Iraq's nuclear capabilities in order to discredit critics like former Ambassador Joe Wilson. Democrats quickly condemned Bush as a hypocrite because he has been a longtime critic of leaks.

Even more damaging is news that a growing number of retired senior military officers have turned against Bush's Iraq policy--which has become the biggest political millstone around his neck--and are calling for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's replacement.