A new Fox News poll shows the President's approval ratings have hit a new low, 33%. Obviously this isn't good news, but it's only "news" because it's a "new" low, but his numbers have been in the toilet for a long time. Luckily he doesn't based policy and decisions on poll numbers.

One thing people should always remember is that many on the right are upset that he's sitting on his hands on the immigration issue, when we want a wall now! As I've said, I believe (or hope) that most Republicans in Washington agree with the base that the border is the biggest national security issue facing us, and we need a wall now! We can deal with all the guest worker ideas, etc. later but we need to stop the flow now. If millions of illegal Mexicans can sneak in every year, so can Al Qaeda with suitcase nukes or (insert favorite chemical or biological weapon here).

My guess is that Republicans assume (probably correctly) that if they got tough on illegal immigration, they'll lose elections, especially when the Democrats pull out the race card. They've already been out recruiting at the massive illegal immigrant rallies, many far left groups who have increasingly gained power with Washington Democrats are pushing for voting rights for illegals, Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy (among others) have appeared and spoken at illegal immigrant events.

Now, one could say, "the Republicans are no better than the Democrats then, because they aren't getting tough because they are afraid of losing elections". Which is true, however, the difference is that if they got tough, the Dems would simply pull the race card and promise all kinds of incentives (we've seen this is how they win the black vote consistently) to keep the immigrant/minority/poor vote on their side so any action taken by Republicans would probably cause many to lose elections, lose a majority, and eventually have any good work they did, reversed by Democrats.

Back on topic, I think we can safely say that the right is expressing disapproval over the President doing nothing on what we consider is the most important issue facing us right now. Where as Democrats read these poll numbers as a victory (which is sad if you look at what that really says about their motives), this isn't good for them, it's just bad for Bush/Republicans... but it doesn't gain them votes. At best it would leave Republican voters at home in future elections, but I believe most are like myself, and know that we'd be even worse off under Democratic leadereship, so we'd have to vote Republican to avoid the worse case scenario.

Another thing to look at on this poll is that the public, despite years of nothing but positive economic news, STILL has a grim view of the American economy. Even the media is finally starting to report that the economy is strong, though they ALWAYS call growth "unexpected" and "surprising". But studies have shown that the media reports negatively on the economy under Republican presidents, regardless of reality, and positively under Democratic presidents, so this has helped create the conventional wisdom that the economy is in a bad way. As I said, even the media is beginning to report the reality, but they've still treated the last few months' job numbers, housing numbers, unemployment numbers, consumer confidence numbers, etc. as flukes.

Remember this post were I detailed with polls, a claim that I always make, that polls show the public's view of the economy is negative, despite the fact that people's opinions about their own situations are positive. These are contradictory numbers that have remained in polls for years now. People assume, because of the way the media reports on the economy, that their positive economic situation is the exception to the rule, so they rank their situation positively, but crap on the overall situation. Don't believe me? Just check out the numbers here, they don't lie, and they aren't new.

Actually, just glancing at the PDF of the Fox News poll I see they asked the questions I just mentioned. You should still definitely check out those numbers from my previous post, to get an understanding of the trend, but see how it continues below. Keep in mind that Fox News doesn't offer as many multiple choice options, so the results are a little odd. Fox News only offers "Excellent", "Good", "Only Fair", "Poor", and "Don't Know". Fox News reports the "only fair" as negative, where as I would see it as neutral, but I'll just use their take. But again, note that those other polls offer a larger spectrum of choices between "Excellent" and "Terrible".

On with it... This question asks how people rate the economy, and shows that 28% rate it as either "excellent" or "good". (Poll shows shows historic public ratings of the economy)

Notice that in the following question about people's opinion of their own personal situation, this jumpst to 46%. Now again, I think this is where the "only fair" option messes things up. Notice what a huge chunk falls in to that category in both questions? On the other polls I mentioned, the it's clear these people spread out over positive and negative sides of the equation, because in those polls the trend shows that roughly two thirds of the country view the economy negatively, yet roughly two thirds view their own situation positively. This Fox News poll, due to the answer options given, shows it abit differently, but it still does show a distinct disconnect.

Also remember that in those other polls, almost a third of the country believes that we're in a recession. I mean how can you trust any poll in this country when you've got almost a third of the people who for whatever reason believe that the economy is in a recession when that isn't something up in the air. Either the economy is or isn't in a recession. We know that it isn't in recession, but apparently if you're hanging out with 2 friends, one of them believes that we are!!! How can such an uninformed public be an indicator of anything?

Of course none of this makes up for President Bush's horrible approval ratings, but I think they are important things to keep in mind as we hear Democrats parading around with "time for change" slogans. Yeah it's time for a change, but not towards the Democratic party and I don't think the Dems should be proud if they pull out some wins by default. Sadly this is all the Democrats are hoping for. Instead of putting out ideas to win on, they continue to bash and come up with clever "culture of corruption" slogans, hoping that they can slide in to a seat, not by really being voted in, but by Republicans being voted out. They should be ashamed of themselves, and anyone voting for them should be ashamed as well.

Republicans, as crappy a job as our elected officials are doing right now, do you really want Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, Dick Durbin, Pat Leahy, Charlie Rangel, etc. running the show!? I know we're all disappointed in what's going on, but let's not sit home on election day because we don't like any of them. You know what disaster it would spell if the Democrats gain any power. It's never great to have to vote for the lesser of two evils, but I think you all realize what Democratic majorities or Presidency could mean, moving forward.