35%

That's Bush's latest approval rating, from this CBS News poll.

This is an extraordinarily unpopular executive-in-chief. Any lower, and his approval rating will approach the margin of error of Nixon's at the height of Watergate. As a sidenote, Nixon's approval rating never fell below the mid-high 20's according to most polls, even as he was flashing the double victory signs to stunned aides and boarding Chopper One for the trip to exile in San Clemente---proving that a president can do just about anything and there will always be many millions of people who will support him. If these people did not exist, I suspect late-night infomercials would not be so enormously profitable.

Much has gone wrong recently for this administration, of course. But I strongly believe the old political adage that people vote their wallets. When those wallets are thin, approval ratings take a hit. To me, the decline to 35% reflects this at least as much as it does Plamegate, Iraq, Miers and Katrina. As serious as Plamegate is to those who are politically aware, let's face it: to most people, this is still somewhat of an inside-the-Beltway story about some guy named Scooter who they had never heard of until a few weeks ago. (Interestingly, this scandal is paralleling Watergate in many ways, particularly with the rolling revelations and the initial insulation of the president from any hint of wrongdoing. Remember, Nixon was overwhelmingly re-elected even after Watergate broke as a story.) Iraq? 2,000 dead was a headline, but I don't think it convinced many supporters of the war's prosecution that things have suddenly gone bad. Miers? This hurt Bush mainly among his conservative base, and according to the CBS poll an equal number of people approved of her as disapproved with most not having an opinion. And Katrina? Bush's approval rating was 10 points higher at the height of that mess.

So we come back to wallets. The CBS poll indicates that Bush's approval rating on the economy has risen over the past month. But I've always been extremely suspicious of the results from polling the public about personal finances. I think many people are reluctant to tell a stranger on the phone that they're not confident about their own financial situation---partially as a result of either inherent optimism or denial, and partially out of the desire for privacy. If my skepticism is warranted, what does 35% imply about both the administration's "all is well" feel-good mantra on the economy and the continuing interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve?

One potential positive for Bush: according to this concurrent CBS News poll, 48% of Americans believe in ghosts. So the "Casper Block"---a segment of the country long coveted by desperate politicians---certainly is alive and well.