Dick Morris: Bush Perf poll 20% higher than Approval poll - so all is well

[papau]

"What counts for the future is that the ratings on his recent performance are 20 points higher than his overall job approval."

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Comment/DickMorris/091405.html

Hurricane Katrina, Act II - starring George Bush
Politicians in Washington are often like motorists who drive only by consulting their rearview mirrors and never look out of their windshields to see what is going on right now.

Our national political/journalistic complex is obsessed with blaming President Bush for failing to respond quickly to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. After weeks of media pounding and casualty figures that were, apparently, wildly and widely exaggerated, polls suggest that the public has no choice but to agree with the critique.

The CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll of Sept. 8-11 shows that only 44 percent of Americans approve of the job Bush did immediately after the storm. But so what? The same survey shows that 58 percent approve of the work he has done since then in helping New Orleans and the Gulf Coast to recover from the effects of the disaster.

The low job approval of Bush’s efforts in the week after the storm will fade into history and take its place alongside similar criticism of his slowness to act after the planes hit on Sept. 11 or after the tsunami struck late last year. What counts for the future is that the ratings on his recent performance are 20 points higher than his overall job approval.<snip>