What Chance the Gardener said, ditto’d straight down the line.
“First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again.”
Location: OH
Age: under 35
Foreign Policy: 7 - I think he has handled the Middle-East about as well as it could be handled until Arafat isn’t in charge anymore. I’ve disagreed with some of his other choices though.
Economy: 6 - Tax cuts should improve the economy, mind you this would require the government to live within its means (Nearly impossible) so its a good try, but somewhat doomed.
Education: 8 - Vouchers will force schools to stop playing games, and adjust to actually perform their jobs properly.
Health Care: 5 - This is a hard one, too many people think that Health Care money grows on trees.
Enviroment: 6 - There is some room for improvement here.
Drugs: 5 - I’m fairly easy going on the drug thing.
Approval Rating: 73 or so. A bit hit for me was that Patriot Act, why it was ever signed into law is beyond me. Antoher hit is Ashcroft, he had his chance to show he could do his job without letting his personal beliefs interfere overly, he has shown he can’t and should be replaced, though with the current atmosphere in the US, I doubt that will happen until elections alas.
Location: New York, NY
Age: Under 35
Foreign Policy: 4
I need to see more “doing the right thing” than “doing the right thing, in consideration of our economic interests.”
Economy: 2
Lack of confidence in publicly-held corporations is kicking the stock market’s butt. I was looking for a presidential speech that would not only show commitment to reform in the areas of earnings reporting and auditing, but I would have also liked to hear something from the president addressing the unrealistic short-term expectations of investors. I didn’t get it.
Education: 6
To an extent, the jury’s still out on this, but I’m okay with what I’ve seen so far.
Health Care: 2
There are so many things wrong with our current health care system. I think it needs to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch. There’s so little accountability and I keep hearing things from people who work in my industry who are afraid to switch jobs because they fear being denied certain types of coverage due to “pre-existing conditions” and such. I realize that health care reform was to be Clinton’s legacy, but I would have liked it if G.W. had picked up the ball and ran with it.
Environment: 2
Why do I get the feeling that the interests of big industry are being placed above environmental concerns?
Drugs:
I had hoped that Bush would shift funds away from the war on drugs to fund homeland security, the war on terrorism, healthcare and other programs that can actually have a positive impact. The war on drugs has been a joke, and I’d like to see the president scale things back dramatically to acknowledge our post-9/11 priorities.
Overall approval rating: 32
When our nation faces multiple crises (war, security, economy, etc.), I expect our chief executive to take action. Even if that action is unsuccessful to a degree, I’d rather see us doing SOMETHING than doing very little.
I think our president handled himself rather well in the weeks and months after the 9/11 attacks, but I would have liked to see more pressure on other nations to provide help because it’s the right thing to do. We should have told Pakistan to shut the hell up about Kashmir and cooperate. They never should have even considered asking for our help in that regard. It would have also been nice to see Bush pressure some of these fence-sitting nations into supporting us without any of this “what’s in it for us?” attitude. A truly great president would have rallied support based on the larger moral issue, and shouldn’t be in the business of doling out favors in the interests of coalition-building.
I’m also a bit concerned about where the interests of big business lie in Bush’s list of priorities. I’m not just referring to the big accounting boo-boos here. I think large corporations have been abusing their power to a larger extent in this administration, as compared to how things were during the Clinton years.
Location: Central Jersey
Age: Under 35
Foreign Policy: 4
Economy: 3
Education: 6
Health Care: 2
Environment: 1
Drugs: 3
Approval: 51
Location: WI
Age: under 35
Foreign Policy: 2. The F*** You Foreign Policy is a disaster. He ignores his respected Secretary of State. Kissing China’s ass - ugh. The only thing keeping this from a 1 is that he didn’t royally screw up the immediate post-9-11 situation. And yes, I am a policy wonk in this area. Oh, and did I mention foreign investment is down sharply?
Economy: 1. Trifecta? Tax cuts, eroding consumer confidence, and Bermuda loopholes. Hot damn!
Education: 5. I don’t recall anything they’ve actually done here (and I don’t count the voucher decision against them because that’s more of a state issue that they inherited - and even still we don’t know how that’s going to turn out).
Health care: 4. Again, I don’t recall much, but the Merck (?) announcement of restated profits when their CEO is chummy with policy makers drops it a point.
Environment: 3. “I read the report that the bureaucracy put out.” No, actually he was briefed on it, but at least someone in the government put it out in the first place.
Drugs: 6. Nothing really to add. Could be worse, I guess.
Approval Rating: Oh, say 25.
Location-Washington state
Age-over 35
Foreign policy-2
Economy-0 The stock market speaks for itself.
Education-1 He hasn’t spelled potato wrong. Yet.
Health care-0 Costs are skyrocketing and he hasn’t done a damn thing. Why should he worry, he doesn’t have to pay for his.
Environment 5- He has backed down on some of his lame ass ideas.
Drugs-5 There is not a damn thing Bush or anybody is going to do about the drug problem. If someone wants to screw up their life with drugs, all the money in the world isn’t going to stop them.
Approval rating -3 That is minus 3. Personally, I think he is an idiot.
Location: MA
Age: 21
Foreign Policy: 2
Economy: 3
Education: 2
Health care: ??
Environment: 1
Drugs: ??
Approval Rating: 20
State: Indiana
Age: over 35
Foreign Policy: 1 I’ve kissed the feet of the Israeli govt. at every opportunity, and everything else is gunboat diplomacy.
Economy: 1 Cutting taxes will get me reelected, nothing else matters. The gasoline price spike got me into the White House, so my oil pals must be pampered.
Education: 1 The always-Republican white religious private schools want vouchers, so I’ll comply.
Health Care: 1.4
Environment: 1 Raping the land is good.
Drugs: My DEA guy’s first move was riding roughshod over the AIDS and cancer patients getting pot from charitable clubs in California. Never mind the Afghan heroin or the cocaine from our buddies in Colombia, pot’s easy to bust, so we’ll go there.
Approval Rating: 1.8 I’ll be lucky to end up ahead of Grant and Harding.
–Nott, shaking his head sadly
Location: Portland, OR
Age: over 35
Foreign Policy: 2
Economy: 1
Education: 1
Health care: 1
Environment: -10
Drugs: 1
Approval Rating: -1
Youmay be able to tell I don’t like the dude. Didn’t like his daddy either - and his daddy and daddy’s boys are really still running things on GW’s watch, after all. I wonder how Millie’s doing - she was such a good dog, too bad she had such shitty parents…
As a disinterested observer and without stealing cainxinth thunder (well too much) and of course no pretext of this being some unbiased sample; the scores up to AskNott give GWB a 3.99 rating with surprising consistency on all categories i.e. a low of 3.72 on Foreign Affairs and a high of 4.26 on Education.
Given that this is poll is a free swing for dissent, I’d classify that a reasonably supportive vote.
However, what I do find interesting is that (based on votes so far) his rating seems very polarised on the domestic issues. On this side of the big puddle we hear the big headlines on Foreign Policy and Trade/Economy and much less on Education, Health, Drugs and Environment (Kyoto excepted). Would this polarity be a more general assessment of GWB?
Lorenzo,
Does my opinion upset you? Sorry. My foreign policy may not be as enlighten as yours, I’m sure. I would, however, like to see a tougher more stringent America. Can Arafat make us look any more foolish? We hold back Israel time and time again on his word he will cease and desist his terrorist activities. Then, BOOM there goes another pizza shop or bus. I believe by stepping aside from this issue Israel will solve their problem. I also believed we should have had more participation in the Afghanistan conflict. We did, and are doing, a great job, but most ground action was seen by Special Forces. Why was this skirmish fought by several thousand troops against a country? We did not finish the job and now our Peace Keeping forces are paying that price. I don’t think our President has disgraced his Country in the least, hence my grade. It is depressing to see the low morale in the other posts. I guess I am more optimistic (which is really rare) than others, when it comes to this administration.
As far as your recommendations thanks, but the Marines are always second to arrive.
Hope I didn’t offend anyone.