President Bush’s job approval rating dipped two points in the last three weeks, despite the foiling of an airline terror plot and the adoption of a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, a new Zogby International telephone poll shows.
The survey was conducted Aug. 11-15, 2006, included 1,018 respondents, and carries a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points.
The numbers continue to reflect erosion in the President’s political base – just 62 percent of Republicans give him positive marks for his job performance, while 38 percent give him negative marks. Even among weekly WalMart shoppers – a demographic group identified by Pollster John Zogby as a critical support group for Bush – just 45 percent now give him positive job marks, though his numbers among those shoppers have improved 10 points since early June.
More than three out of four – 76 percent – of weekly WalMart shoppers voted for Bush over Democrat John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election, earlier Zogby polling showed.
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Among both conservatives and those who consider themselves very conservative, 59 percent give him positive marks, while 41 percent in each group gave him a negative job rating.
One third of respondents – 34 percent – said that, overall, the nation is headed in the right direction, while 59 percent said they think things are off on the wrong track.