Poll Numbers Only Tell Part of the Story

CNN, USA Today and Gallup conducted a rather exhaustive poll recently which took a look at the president's polling numbers. Overall, he was up three percent from the time of the election.

Bush's job approval rating went up to 52 percent in the poll, which was conducted Friday through Sunday in phone calls to 1,008 adult Americans. That's an improvement of 3 percentage points from the last CNN poll, taken in mid-December.

So, good news for Bush, right?

Not so fast. The majority of this increase (which Bushies will undoubtedly call a "spike" or "validation of his man-date") seems to come from a general sense of approval of his handling of the Tsunami relief efforts.

He also got high marks for his handling of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster, with 75 percent of respondents saying they approved of the way he handling it.

I don't have strong feelings one way or the other on his performance in this. Some people criticized him for remaining holed up at his ranch (the "Western Whit House"... ugh) and not addressing the world immediately. Call me negative, but personally I'd rather he stayed there most of the time and kept his mouth shut. The less I have to see him blathering on my television screen, the better my day goes. As for the disaster relief itself, he did manage to send the military over to help with rescue, relief delivery and reconstruction. And after some prodding and poking from the international community, he allocated a fair amount of cash for the efforts, so I suppose his performance could be called "ok."

But notice the pattern here. When was the last time his numbers went up? It was after 9/11. It seems that this guy only thrives when disaster strikes humanity.

Before anyone gets too teary eyed over his sudden "surge" in popularity, let's take a look at what these Americans felt about the issues where the rubber meets the road.

Bush got his highest marks in a year on his handling of the economy, with 50 percent of those polled saying they approved of his performance.

But only 42 percent of those surveyed said they approved of his handling of the war in Iraq, and 56 percent disapproved.

And 52 percent said they disapproved of his handling of Social Security -- an issue Bush has called on Congress to tackle in his second term. Only 41 percent said they approved of Bush's desire to revamp Social Security, on which he has promised to spend the "political capital" he earned from his November election victory.

The economy numbers are a wash, as I see it. That's pretty much the same half of the country who elected him, and is composed of the same group of Bush Bobbleheads who will answer any poll question with, "whichever answer makes our Dear Leader look best."

The war numbers are the ones that jump out at me. In what should have been the single, defining issue of the election, 60% of the country is willing to admit that he's screwed up. While it is certainly alarming to think that 4 in ten Americans actually believe he's doing a good job in Iraq, I think that too many people felt that, while he may have screwed up royally, Kerry didn't have any better ideas either.

What I like best about this poll is the fact that the same 60% seem to be seeing through Bush's attempted Social Security scam. This ugly, vicious little plan needs to be nipped in the bud, and with those kinds of numbers I hope that a sufficient body of legislators will feel they have the backing of their constituents to see it die on the vine.