1115.org

By now, you’ve probably heard from about a million different sources that the President’s job approval rating has dropped to an abysmal 32% in CNN polling. That, obviously, is not a good place to be. But what’s kind of amusing about this whole thing is the way that the news media is trying to frame these poor numbers.

Take ABC Radio News for instance. During their on-the-hour news break this evening, they reported the 32% number and immediately followed it up with something like “this despite the recent personnel shakeups in the White House staff”.

Oh really?

Sure there have been a few changes at the White House. Certain people have done their very best to make Andy Card and Scott McLellan’s departures into something significant. And to a small extent—at least if you heavily tilt the survey toward bloggers and political junkies—that may be true. But does anyone think that the average person cares? I would love to see the CNN or ABC survey that figures out the percentage of Americans who could even name Bush’s chief of staff, press secretary or more than three cabinet members. They may have heard of Donald Rumsfeld, but it’s way less likely that they pay attention to John Snow. Anyone want to place bets on which one will be resigning soonest?

Ol’ Scottie may be gone from the podium. But the problem for the Bush administration at this point isn’t the mouthpiece, it’s the policies. It’s Iraq, rising gas prices, residual resentment from Katrina, the various questions involving illegal wiretapping and leaked information, Medicare reform, immigration, and…well, the list stretches on. Why would anyone think that a few staff changes is going to somehow turn the tide here? At the end of the day, it’s still the President out there leading the country and choosing the policies; as he famously said last week, he’s “the decider”.

Unless The Decider decides to make significant changes in his policies or perform a major staff shakeup, these numbers aren’t going anywhere. ABC News may wonder why that is, but no one else will.