By almost any measure George W. Bush has proved to be the most conservative president in the modern history of this country, using all the powers at his disposal and then some to try to move the country to the right. But what do conservatives now think of the President? According to the straw poll of those attending CPAC last week, which represent a rather elite group of conservatives, the movement seems about ready to throw their beloved president under the bus. The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire has the story.
Ronald Reagan is alive and well -- at least, he was at the Conservative Political Action Conference over the weekend. In a straw poll of conference participants, 79% said they would support "a Ronald Reagan Republican" for president, while only 3% said they would support a "George W. Bush Republican." Still, 82% said they favor the president's strategy in Iraq.
With President Bush's approval numbers in the toilet and seemingly going further down, it's no wonder that so many conservatives no longer care to call themselves George W. Bush Republicans. Pollster.com has not updated its presidential approval trend estimate in almost a week, but even then they pegged the President at a sub-35 percent approval rating. A simple average of the eight national polls in the field within the last two weeks (here, here and here) places the President's approval rating at below 33 percent. Suffice it to say that he is not a popular President and is, in fact, among the most unpopular Presidents in the history of this republic.
Still, for as bad as things are currently for President Bush, they would certainly get worse if conservatives abandoned him, too. True, the poll question above was more of a choice between Presidents Reagan and Bush than one that gauged support for President Bush (there was not, for instance, a question measuring the President's job approval rating -- or at least not one that was released publicly). But at the same time, the fact that so few of these elite conservatives wanted the next GOP nominee to carry the mantle of George W. Bush is quite telling. And if these elite sentiments trickle down to the base -- and they quite possibly will -- we could see a further deterioration of support for President Bush, both around the country and potentially up on Capitol Hill, further weakening the White House's hand as it tries to advance its radical agenda.
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