GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
PRINCETON, NJ -- About one in three Americans approve of the way President George W. Bush is handling his job as president so far this year, marking the worst average of his presidency and a continuation of a slow and steady decline since 2002.
While Republicans continue to express much higher levels of support for the president than do Democrats or independents, the president's ratings among all three groups so far this year are at their lowest point. Bush's average job approval ratings among independents and Democrats are extremely low, and have changed little from last year. Republicans' average ratings of Bush, on the other hand, have declined slightly this year compared with last year. Conservatives are also more positive than moderates or liberals in their assessment of Bush, but again, average ratings among all three groups are at their lowest level.
Overall Job Approval Ratings
Bush's job approval rating has averaged 35% in the first five months of this year, the lowest yearly average approval rating of his tenure in the White House and three percentage points lower than last year's average. In Bush's first year in office, 2001, an average of 66% of Americans approved of the job he was doing as president. This average increased to 72% in 2002, and then declined each year since. Bush's yearly average approval rating has been below 50% in 2005, 2006, and so far in 2007.
Party Affiliation
As is usually the case in presidential job approval ratings, members of the president's own party give him much higher approval ratings than do independents or members of the opposing party. For Bush, this means Republicans show significantly higher levels of support than independents or Democrats. Still, over the six years of his administration, the president's ratings have deteriorated among all three partisan groups. So far this year, Bush's ratings have fallen even more among Republicans compared with last year's average, although they remain well into positive range. Bush's ratings have remained stable, albeit at extremely low levels, among Democrats and independents.
According to the yearly average data, more than 9 in 10 Republicans approved of the president from 2001 through 2004. Bush's approval rating then started to fall among members of his own party, dropping to an average of 86% in 2005, then to 80% last year, and now 75% so far in 2007. Over the course of his administration, Bush's job approval ratings among Republicans have only fallen 20 points from his high point in 2002 to the latest average, his lowest, in the first five months of this year. By comparison, Bush's approval rating has dropped 40 points among independents and 45 points among Democrats..
Forty-six percent of Democrats, on average, approved of Bush during his first year in office. This increased to an average of 53% in 2002, before dropping to 33% in 2003. Fewer than one in six Democrats approved of Bush in 2004 and 2005, and since then, Democrats' approval ratings for the president have averaged just below 10%.
A majority of independents approved of Bush from 2001 to 2003, with a high average of 69% in 2002. Then the president's rating began to decrease, to 45% in 2004 and then 38% in 2005. Bush's rating among independents has averaged 29% both in 2006 and 2007.
Political Ideology
Self-described conservatives have consistently been more positive in their assessment of Bush than have moderates or liberals. Ratings among all three groups were at their highest averages in 2002, and are at their lowest this year.
Fifty-nine percent of conservatives, on average, approve of Bush so far in 2007. This average rating is 3 points lower than last year, and 26 points lower than Bush's highest rating in 2002. Conservatives' ratings of Bush fell the most between 2005 and 2006, from 70% to 62%.
Roughly one in four moderates (26%) approve of the job Bush is doing so far this year, a four-point drop from last year's average. A majority of moderates approved of Bush from 2001 through 2003, but this sentiment has been steadily dropping each year since.
An average of just 11% of liberals approve of Bush so far this year, the same as last year. Bush's rating among liberals has been quite low in recent years, ranging between 11% and 19% since 2004. At their high point, in 2002, only about half of liberals approved of Bush.
Survey Methods
Results are based on telephone interviews with approximately 1,000 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted between 2001 and 2007. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error for any given survey is ±3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.