Bush 36, Cheney 29

No, it's not the score of the WHIG intramural football game. It's the favorable ratings for the dynamic duo. In the latest Newsweek poll, Bush's approval rating crashes to 36%.

"Only 36 percent of Americans approve of the job he is doing as president, and an astounding 68 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with the direction of the country—the highest in Bush’s presidency. But that’s not the worst of it for the 43rd president of the United States, a leader who rode comfortably to reelection just a year ago. Half of all Americans now believe he’s not “honest and ethical.”

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The president can take some solace in the fact that 42 percent of Americans believe he is honest and ethical. Only 29 percent believe that Vice President Dick Cheney is. And more than a quarter of Republicans, 26 percent, believe the vice president is not honest and ethical. The growing credibility gap could have ramifications across the president’s agenda: 56 percent of Americans say Bush “won’t be able to get much done;” only 36 percent say he “can be effective.”

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In a Veterans Day address on Friday he accused critics of his Iraq policies of sending “the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America’s will.” But Democrats aren’t the only ones questioning the administration’s Iraq policies—almost 2 in 3 Americans (65 percent) disapprove of the president’s handling of Iraq.

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And that links directly to the credibility issue. Fifty-two percent of Americans believe Cheney “deliberately misused or manipulated pre-war intelligence about Iraq’s nuclear capabilities in order to build support for war,” including 22 percent of Republicans and 54 percent of independents.

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Coming on the heels of Democratic wins in closely watched gubernatorial races in (Blue) New Jersey and (Red) Virgina this week, all of this has got to worry Republican leaders contemplating next year’s elections. When NEWSWEEK asked registered voters whether they planned to vote for a Democrat or a Republican in those elections, 53 percent said a Democrat and 36 percent said a Republican. It’s a long way from now to next year’s Congressional contests. But no one knows better than the president how much things can change in a year."