Bush Approval Among Black Americans at 2%
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com [excerpts; emphasis added]

In what may turn out to be one of the biggest free-falls in the history of presidential polling, President Bush's job-approval rating among African Americans has dropped to 2 percent, according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

The drop among blacks drove Bush's overall job approval ratings to an all-time low of 39 percent in this poll. By comparison, 45 percent of whites and 36 percent of Hispanics approve of the job Bush is doing.

Tim Russert called attention to this startling statistic on the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams yesterday: "Brian, listen to this," he said. "Only 2 percent -- 2 percent! -- of African-Americans approve of George Bush's handling of the presidency -- the lowest we have ever seen in that particular measure."

So this morning, I called Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff, to get a better sense of the significance of the results.

"African Americans were not supporters, but I don't think that they outright detested him -- until now," Hart said. "The actions in and around Katrina persuaded African Americans that this was a president who was totally insensitive to their concerns and their needs."
Hart said he has never seen such a dramatic drop in presidential approval ratings, within any subgroup.

A few months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found Bush's approval rating among blacks at 51 percent. As recently as six months ago, it was at 19 percent.

John Harwood writes in the Wall Street Journal: : "Looming over Mr. Bush's second term is what Mr. McInturff calls a 'very difficult, sour' public mood. Just 28% of Americans say the nation is heading in 'the right direction,' the lowest figure in nearly 10 years, according to the Journal/NBC survey."

Looking at the latest crop of presidential polls, Catholic University Professor John Kenneth White recently wrote for pollingreport.com that "for the remainder of his presidency, George W. Bush will govern without the consent of the governed."