1115.org

The White House siezed eagerly and gratefully on last week’s Newsweek poll, which shows an improbable 11 point bounce for President Bush’s terror ratings on the heels of the London bomb plot news.

…a majority, 55 percent, approve of Bush’s handling of terrorism and homeland security (40 percent disapprove), an 11-point boost since May, returning the president to levels not seen since early 2005

For instance, we had Tony Snow crowing yesterday about the “11-point pivot” they scored.

The Newsweek poll was conducted last Thursday and Friday night. That was probably before many people realized that the Bush administration had contributed zilch to this stellar victory in TWAT.

Yesterday Zogby released the results of a poll conducted August 11 through 15. Highlights (verbatim quotes all):
• President Bush’s job approval rating dipped two points in the last three weeks, despite the foiling of an airline terror plot and the adoption of a cease–fire deal between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon
• One third of respondents – 34% – said that, overall, the nation is headed in the right direction, while 59% said they think things are off on the wrong track.
• Likely voters in the poll, asked whether they planned to vote for the Democrat or the Republican in their local congressional election, 39% favored Democrats, while 31% said they would be voting for the Republican candidate.
• Democrats also are winning the battle among independents, who favor the out–of–power party by a 32% to 20% margin, with 41% of independents yet undecided.
• Asked if the war in Iraq has been worth the loss of American lives, 38% said “yes,” while 56% said “no,” a ratio that has held steady over the past year or so.

The Zogby poll did not address Bush’s handling of terrorism, so it’s not a direct rebuttal of the Newsweek poll.

The Newsweek poll had found a slight increase in Bush’s job approval rating. However, their numbers are not strictly comparable to Zogby’s, since the Zogby decline is over the last three weeks, while the Newsweek increase is over the last three months:

55 percent disapprove of how the president is doing his job, while 38 percent approve, an increase of 3 points since the May 11-12 NEWSWEEK Poll.

A CBS poll conducted August 11 through 13, however, did address Bush’s handling of terrorism and found very different results from Newsweek’s instapoll. Here’s WaPo’s Dan Froomkin:

But in contrast to a much-ballyhooed Newsweek poll , CBS reports: “The arrests in Britain have not helped President Bush’s popularity so far, the CBS poll finds. His job approval remains exactly at 36 percent, where it was a month ago. Even the president’s rating for handling terrorism — his strongest suit — remains unchanged at 51 percent.“

Froomkin again on this week’s Gallup poll:

Similarly a new Gallup Poll found Bush’s approval rating back down to 37 percent. And while most of the poll’s interviews were conducted before news of the terror plot broke, Gallup reports that “interviews conducted after the news became public were only slightly more favorable to Bush than those conducted before.”

Gallup also notes that “…Bush’s approval ratings have remained fairly stable for more than two months…”