[Mb-civic] Bush's Approval Rating Drops To New Low in Wake of Storm

[William Swiggard]

Bush's Approval Rating Drops To New Low in Wake of Storm
He Says Race Didn't Affect Efforts; Blacks in Poll Disagree

By Michael A. Fletcher and Richard Morin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, September 13, 2005; Page A08

Touring devastated portions of New Orleans yesterday, President Bush 
sought to reassure the public that the government is responding to 
Hurricane Katrina with equity and dispatch, even as his standing hit 
record lows amid broad support for an independent investigation of the 
federal response to the storm.

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll found that clear majorities of 
Americans disapprove of the way officials at all levels of government 
are handling the recovery from Katrina. A 54 percent majority 
disapproved of Bush's response to Katrina, while an even larger majority 
-- 57 percent -- say state and local officials should bear 
responsibility for the problems.

Attitudes toward Bush and the government's overall response to Hurricane 
Katrina fracture along clear racial lines. Nearly three in four whites 
doubted the federal government would have responded more quickly to 
those trapped in New Orleans if they had been wealthier and white rather 
than poorer and black, the poll found. But an equal share of blacks 
disagreed, saying help would have come sooner if the victims had been 
more affluent whites.

More than six in 10 blacks -- 63 percent -- said the problems with the 
hurricane relief effort are an indication of continuing racial inequity 
in this country, a view rejected by more than seven in 10 whites, 
according to the poll.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/12/AR2005091200668.html?referrer=email
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