Roundup: Bush Faces Challenges Amid Decline of Approval Rating

US President George W. Bush, who is in his sixth month in office, is facing more challenges amid a sharp decline of his approval rating and stinging setbacks in Congress.

According to four new polls released in recent weeks, Bush's job approval rating has slipped 6 to 8 percentage points to around 53 percent since the spring. The latest NBC-Wall Street Journal poll put Bush's approval at 50 percent, the lowest mark for a president for five years in that poll.

Surveys by the Washington Post, ABC News, CBS News and the New York Times, and the Pew Research Center also have recorded declines in his approval rating during that period.

The polls found that a majority of Americans think Bush pays no attention to matters they care most about and there is a substantial gap between his stand and theirs on many issues, including the patients' bill of rights, education, energy, the environment, raising the minimum wage, prescription drugs and judicial appointments.

Bush is increasingly perceived as both the servant and captive of moneyed interests. According to the CBS News - New York Times poll, 57 percent said Bush administration's policies favored the rich, only 8 percent said they favored the middle class, only 2 percent said the poor.

Polls showed that many Americans are troubled by Bush's environmental and energy policies. A majority of those surveyed said that Bush favors oil companies at the expense of the environment and that they want greater emphasis on environmental protection and energy conservation than they believe Bush favors.

Even Bush's biggest legislative achievement -- a 1.35 trillion dollars, 10-year tax cut -- is shadowed by some doubt. Two-thirds of those polled in a recent survey said the money would have been better spent on other programs.

The verdict on Bush's handling of social issues and domestic policy undoubtedly frustrated a president who began his campaign with a slogan of "compassionate conservatism" and by promising to "reconnect" his party to the disadvantaged and who often stressed his kinship with "those that struggle to get into the middle class. "

Bush's failure to ease the partisan divisions in the country frustrated administration efforts to enlarge his fragile political base and prompted advisers to look for ways to redefine his presidency.

The biggest setback for Bush is the departure of Senator James Jeffords from the Republican Party, which handed control of the Senate to Democrats and sidelined Bush's agenda in Congress.

The drop in public option, coupled with the fact that Democrats now control the Senate, has emboldened the president's Democratic opponents in Congress. The patients' bill of right, which is the top priority of the Democratic Party, gained steam in Congress and passed the Senate last week.

The House, though still Republican, rejected Bush's efforts to explore for oil and gas in environmentally sensitive areas and denied his request to allow Mexican trucks to operate throughout the United States.

"Through arrogance and ineptitude, the Bush people have lost control of the Senate and the agenda," the Washington Post commented in an editorial Sunday.

Meanwhile, Bush finds himself at odds with rest of the world on many important issues stretching from missile defense to environment and trade.

His plan for a missile defense system has rattled key allies in Europe and met opposition from Russia and China.

Bush's withdrawal from the Kyoto treaty on global warming without notifying allies also angered environmentalists and many European leaders.

Moreover, the United States suffered a severe setback when the country was stripped of its longtime seat on the 53-member U.N. Human Rights Commission.

Far from giving him a political lift, Bush's European tour, though treated as a triumph by the White House, did not appear to help him in the eyes of the public. The New York Times poll showed that less than half approve the way Bush is handling international matters, while more than half are uneasy about his capacity to deal with a global crisis.

The poll indicated that 72 percent said it was necessary to take immediate steps to counter the effects of global warming. While the administration has rejected the Kyoto accord on global warming, more than half of the public said the U.S. should abide by the agreement.

In the longer term, Bush remains committed to an ambitious agenda that includes national missile defense and overhauling Medicare and Social Security, but his failure to break through the partisan polarization within the electorate and secure stronger support from among political independents could weaken his hand in those battles, the Washington Post said.

Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, chairman of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, said Bush should move toward the political middle and practice rather than merely preach bipartisanship or risk seeing his approval rating sinks further.

All in all, given the past situation and taken into account the present reality, it could be safely predicted that the way ahead for Bush is undoubtedly rough, with no vision of a flower-bedded path.

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