[span style="font-weight: bold;" class="news_story_title"]Bush Poll Ratings Before Speech Fall to Nixon's Level [/span]
By Nadine Elsibai[/p] Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush's approval ratings are now the lowest for any president the day before a State of the Union speech since Richard Nixon in 1974, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. [/p] Sixty-five percent of those surveyed said they disapprove of how Bush is handling his job as president while 33 percent approve. The rating matches Bush's career low in a May 2006 poll. [/p] Seventy-one percent of Americans said the country is on the wrong track, up from 46 percent in an April 2003 poll, the month after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. A majority of those polled this month don't approve of how Bush is handling the Iraq war, terrorism or the economy. [/p] Bush, who addresses the nation before a joint session of Congress tomorrow, will face many members of his own party who blame him for Republicans' losing majority control of the House and Senate in the November 2006 midterm elections. [/p] White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush's State of the Union speech will focus on issues including the Iraq war, energy independence, health-care, immigration and education.
[/p] Bush also received career-low approval ratings in a new CNN poll. Sixty-three percent of those surveyed said they disapprove of how Bush has handled his presidency and 34 percent said they approve. Sixty percent disapproved and 38 percent approved of Bush's performance in a March 2006 CNN poll. [/p] [a href="vny!://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&refer=&sid=a.aveoiqdgBU"]vny!://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&refer=&sid=a.aveoiqdgBU[/a] [/p]
