President Bush's rating among Americans regained more lost ground in September, with the IBD/TIPP Presidential Leadership Index rising another 6% to 40.2. That's up 16% from its all-time low of 34.7 in June and the first time the index has topped 40.0 since March. The improvement came despite a sharp 29% drop to new low of 11.4 in Democrats' opinion of the president. That was offset by improvements of 8% to an eight-month high of 77.9 among Republicans and 21% to a 2007 high of 34.0 among Independents.(Hat Tip to Take Our Country Back)
Head must be exploding across the left side of the blogosphere. As reports of the surge and progress come in and America sees them, Bush's ratings are steadily rising, month after month.
The news gets worse for them though. 9/10/07.
In a rare public speech, CIA Director Michael Hayden complained last week the public support for aggressive methods used in counterterrorism is waning and leading toward a pre-9/11 complacency.
But the IBD/TIPP Poll taken last week found Americans solidly behind such measures as warrantless wiretaps, detention of terrorist suspects in foreign prisons and keeping open the prison at Guantanamo Bay.
THE QUESTION: Do you support or oppose the following actions by the U.S. government intended to protect the nation?
Breakdown of answers:
Wiretapping terrorist suspects without a court warrant:
Support..........61%
Oppose...........36%
Not sure/refused 3%
Increased surveillance:
Support..........69%
Oppose...........26%
Not sure/refused 5%
Detention of non-U.S. terrorist suspects in foreign jails:
Support..........59%
Oppose...........32%
Not sure/refused 9%
The U.S. Patriot Act, which expands the authority of agencies to pursue information that may be used to foil terrorist plots:
Support..........67%
Oppose...........30%
Not sure/refused 4%
Disallowing some people from flying on commercial airplanes because they may represent potential security threats:
Support..........68%
Oppose...........27%
Not sure/refused 5%
Keeping suspected terrorists or enemy combatants at the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp:
Support..........63%
Oppose...........29%
Not sure/refused 9%
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In other polls, Rasmussen to be exact, pessimism about the war is also slowly declining, 49% of Americans feel congress is doing a lousy job vs 15% thinking they are doing a good job.
Three years of declining numbers are slowly turning around as support rises for the war on terror. The numbers are still, admittedly, low, but since this new trend is only 2-3 months old vs the three years they had to decline, the rise is significant in meaning and as long as we continue to keep getting reports of progress and success in Iraq, those numbers will continue to climb, while congressional numbers have a good possibility of continuing to decline.
This might be the reason that Congress, very quietly, approved a stop gap measure of more funds until a long-delayed appropriations process is completed.
The Senate agreed on Thursday to increase the federal debt limit by $850 billion -- from $8.965 trillion to $9.815 trillion -- and then proceeded to approve a stop-gap spending bill that gives the Bush White House at least $9 billion in new funding for its war in Iraq.Senate Roll Call can be found here.
Additionally, the administration has been given emergency authority to tap further into a $70 billion "bridge fund" to provide new infusions of money for the occupation while the Congress works on appropriations bills for the Department of Defense and other agencies.
Translation: Under the guise of a stop-gap spending bill that is simply supposed to keep the government running until a long-delayed appropriations process is completed -- probably in November -- the Congress has just approved a massive increase in war funding.
The move was backed by every senator who cast a vote, save one.
Congress Roll Call found here.
So far I am only seeing a couple heads exploding, (check the comments in that last link) but as the news spreads, I will update this with reactions.
[Update] More heads exploding, on cue.
Completely Unnecessary, Captain Proton Takes The Trib, Moonbat Juggernaut
More reactions.
(Note to Completely Necessary- It was called a trackback, not a comment. Perhaps you should learn a little more about what you speak of before speaking.--Spree)
[Update 10/1/07] Just as a point of interest, RCP averages from polls show that Bush's approval rating is higher than that of the Congress. Bush has 32.8% Approval and Congress has 25.3% Approval.
Each poll has differing numbers (because they all poll different groups of people) but all agree on one thing. Bush is more popular than Congress and his numbers are rising and theirs are dropping.
Spin that.
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