1115.org

A few weeks before the 2004 election, I wrote about a condition I termed “battered voter syndrome” to explain why George W. Bush was going to win another term and what he would do with four more years:

George W. Bush isn’t going to change his policies if he receives four more years with which to run this country any more than an abusive husband would stop beating his wife if she moved back in with him. Bush, who can’t name a single mistake he’s made in 4 years in the White House, will only accelerate implementation of his radical agenda, just like an abuser would take advantage of any opportunity to batter his wife. With no more elections to face, Bush would claim a mandate and be free of any constraints he might otherwise be forced to endure, the same way a controlling husband who knows his terrified wife will always come back no matter how much punishment she has to endure.

The closer it got to the election, the more it appeared that the voters were dismissing Bush’s individual failures on a variety of fronts, in favor of a view amounting to “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

The new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll reinforces the dynamic. Now that he no longer faces an election, Bush has the country suffering from “battered citizen syndrome”:

These are the only issues they polled, and unless there was a hidden question where Bush scored a 99% approval rating, (Do you approve of the President’s “tough talk” agenda? Or Do you still want to have a beer with the President?) a significant disconnect remains. On the issues most Americans would consider critical, Bush faces approval deficits ranging from 4-40%, including 23% on his main priority, Social Security. Even his former strengths, Iraq and foreign affairs, have gone negative. Yet his overall support, as measured by this poll, is within the margin of error of his reelection victory.

In the wake of 9/11 and the Iraq war, when his approval rating was much higher, many people (including us) joked about what the President would have to do to lose his popularity. (If I remember correctly, mine involved Bush in a compromising with Saddam Hussein while being videotaped by Osama bin Laden.) But the irony is that Bush has done, and not done, multiple things that have eroded his popularity. But while a majority of people disagree with his handling on almost every major issue, half always return to support him in the end. Maybe if he started appearing in public wearing a white tank-top…

(Thanks to Tom for the link.)