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Bush Polling Numbers on the Way Up?

Yep… so says Gallup. [1]

We’re seeing some slight hints of positive news for the Bush administration.  For one thing, Bush’s job approval rating has stopped its downward trajectory.  Bush hit bottom with his administration low point of 29% [2] in early July (based on our USA Today/Gallup poll readings).  Now – in the data just about to be released from our weekend poll – Bush’s approval rating has recovered slightly to 34%.  That’s not a big jump, but it is the second consecutive poll in which the president’s numbers have been higher rather than lower.

It gets better:

Also, we are seeing a slight uptick [3] in the percentage of Americans who say the “surge” in Iraq is working.  That may not be a total surprise given the general tone of news out of Iraq recently, including the positive light on the situation put forth by Michael E. O’Hanlon and Kenneth M. Pollack in their widely-discussed New York Times op-ed piece “A War We Just Might Win” [4] on July 30. But it represents a change.

Indeed, the most recent New York Times/CBS News poll itself found a slight increase [5] in the percent of Americans saying that the U.S. did the right thing in taking military action in Iraq, and were so uncertain about it that they redid the survey. And found the same results. (See this discussion [6] by the Times’ Janet Elder).

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Here, dear reader, is another reason why perceptions, and falsehoods, like the ones under discussion in the Beauchamp affair, are of such great import.  The slightest positive move, from the leftist mouthpiece of the nation, the New York Times, and look at the turn the approval numbers take.  That’s why there was such a great emphasis on discrediting all O’Hanlon and Pollack when that article first appeared. the left knows full well that this is a battle of perception, as I stated in my comments to Billy, as regards Beauchamp.

And as to perceptions, let’s also remember that Congress, by comparison to Mr. Bush’s middle thirties numbers has an approval rating of 3%.