Bush In Freefall

The latest CBS News Poll shows Bush at 34 percent. That's an 8% fall in the past month alone. The stats are worth more than just a passing glance:

Two out of three Americans said they do not think President Bush has responded adequately to the needs of Katrina victims.

For the first time in this poll, most Americans say the president does not care much about people like themselves. Fifty-one percent now think he doesn't care, compared to 47 percent last fall.

Just 30 percent approve of how Mr. Bush is handling the Iraq war, another all-time low. By two to one, the poll finds Americans think U.S. efforts to bring stability to Iraq are going badly – the worst assessment yet of progress in Iraq.

Even on fighting terrorism, which has long been a strong suit for Mr. Bush, his ratings dropped lower than ever. Half of Americans say they disapprove of how he's handling the war on terror, while 43 percent approve.

That "Terrorism" issue is a key pointer and has alwasy been the mainstay of Bush's base support since 9/11/01: a year ago, Bush was at 61% approval on terrorism, and even last month it was still 52%.

Obviously, it's hard to convince the USA that Bush's bogus "war on terror" is going well when their TV screens show Iraq (we fight 'em there so we don't have to fight them here, remember?) quickly going to hell in a handbasket. Of course, that hasn't stopped FOX News from trying...

UPDATE: Dan Froomkin gives an historical perspective:

To find other numbers that low in the CBS poll, you have to go back 14 years to Bush's father. Bill Clinton never had it so bad.

To find numbers even lower, you have to go back to Jimmy Carter's disastrous 1979 -- or to Richard Nixon in 1974, who Gallup-polled as low as 23 just before he resigned.