President Bush’s job approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 39 percent since Hurricane Katrina hit, according to a AP-Ipsos poll conducted last week.
Along with a low job approval rating, the poll found that 52 percent of people polled said they disapproved of the president’s handling of the hurricane.
These numbers are a far cry from Bush’s 80 percent-plus approval ratings after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
No matter what the event: if it affects Americans, it is going to affect the president’s job approval rating, Marty Wiseman, director of the Stennis Institute of Government and professor of political science and public administration, said.
“When an event happens, whether it was caused … by people’s actions, or it was caused by Mother Nature, we look at the president to see how he’s going to perform. Now presidential performance is at everybody’s attention,” Wiseman said.
While Bush has the job that draws the most attention and blame, he responded well to the situation, and more attention should be paid to state and local government, College Republicans president Stephen Horn said.
“Whoever was president at the time, his approval ratings would have dropped. People start to point fingers and blame, and he’s in the position,” Horn said.
Unlike the terrorist attacks, this disaster does not leave the option of blaming an enemy, and the president, along with the rest of the government, is initially powerless, Wiseman said.
“In a war, the president can invoke the ‘rally around the flag’ sentiment. War involves strategy that you have initial control over. You can’t control Mother Nature, so when hurricanes or earthquakes roll around, what becomes important is how quickly the president regains control and what he does with that control,” Wiseman said.
Overall, for all the natural disaster planning and relief efforts outlined to take effect in the event of a disaster such as Katrina, America was not ready to deal with the aftermath of such a devastating blow, Horn said.
“I think that anybody could assess the situation appropriately and find that our country as a whole was not prepared for this natural disaster. It reflects on the government, but more on the state and local levels,” Horn said.
It is unacceptable that our nation was not prepared for Katrina, and the responsibility for this failure falls upon our leadership, president emeritus of College Democrats Brandon Bogard said.
“The majority of Americans are realizing that the direction of our country as a whole is headed the wrong way. Our government has gone more to reaction than action,” Bogard said. “A hurricane can be predicted and should not take an area by surprise.”
According to CNN, the number of people who think the country is now taking the wrong course of action increased from 59 percent last month to 65 percent this month.
Bush, hurt by the 72 hours it took him to react, still has a chance to recover from this dip in ratings caused by his reactions to Katrina, Wiseman said.
“Bush was painfully slow to get and process news, and staying in Crawford may have hurt him. A great deal now depends on his follow-through on the programs he’s talked about. He is seeming ironically like a Democrat with his ‘money is no object’ form of aid,” Wiseman said. “In the next months, his slowness will be the ‘Achilles Heel’ of his presidential leadership evaluation.”
Bush’s decision to remain in Texas did not hurt his ability to respond well to the situation, Horn said.
“He is just as capable of running the country from his ranch in Texas,” Horn said. “In dealing with what he had to work with in the little amount of time, he did a good job.”
Bush was still in Texas finishing his vacation while emergency relief efforts were underway when he should have been taking charge of dealing with Katrina’s aftermath Bogard said.
“The fact that he went back to the White House immediately [instead of straight to the coast] proves that he can’t run everything from his ranch,” Bogard said. “I don’t think Bush can be as affective from Texas as he can from Washington.”
Last Tuesday, Bush took responsibility for the slow response. In order to salvage his ratings, Bush will also have to perform well in dealing with the other major issues currently affecting America, Wiseman said.
“With record numbers of casualties in Iraq last week, budget issues, gasoline prices and Katrina, Bush’s performance may have an affect on the midterm elections,” Wiseman said. “How he performs in all of these crisis will affect his legacy.”