After the Sept. 11 attacks and with the new “War on Terrorism,” President George W. Bush has shown leadership, and the American public has rallied to him.
In national surveys, including the ABC/Washington Post, Bloomberg News, CBS News/New York Times and CNN/Time polls, positive presidential ratings have soared.
“Do you approve or disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job as president?” is the commonly asked question in each of the polls. The percentages range from 85-90 percent of respondents approving, 10-15 percent disapproving. Before the Sept. 11 attack, Bush’s popularity ratings were between 51-54 percent.
“There is often a rally-around-the-flag mood in the public in times of national crisis, and that’s what happened here,” said Herb Weisberg, professor of political science at Ohio State. “It is not surprising Bush’s popularity has grown.
“The public realizes Bush could not be effective in mounting a counter-terrorism effort if the public were not behind him, so the public has become nearly universally supportive of him,” Weisberg said.
Bush’s father, George Bush, also hit a 90 percent popularity rating after defeating Iraq in early 1991. Presidents often have defining events, Weisberg said. Ronald Reagan’s popularity numbers weren’t very high until the assassination attempt on him. Bill Clinton also had mediocre ratings until after the destruction of the federal building in Oklahoma City and his very effective homage for the victims.
“This is George W. Bush’s defining event, and we’ll have to wait and see if he’ll be effective enough to maintain a high popularity level,” Weisberg said.
OSU political science professor Lawrence Baum agreed that a jump in approval of the president is common in a crisis situation. In an emergency situation people tend to put more trust in the government.
Gregory Miller, political science lecturer at OSU, said approval ratings fluctuate up and down depending on the times.
“Americans support their president when they need to,” he said.
Miller said he believes Bush is growing into the leadership role as a result of the crisis and is playing the part of a strong leader effectively.
“Bush is surrounded by knowledgeable, experienced people, so I have a great deal of confidence in the administration as a whole unit,” he said.
It is difficult to know whether the current air strikes against Afghanistan are acceptable and will keep Bush’s approval ratings high.
“From a legal standpoint, they would only be acceptable if we have evidence linking bin Laden to the attacks,” Miller said. “This is something we have not seen in public but does seem to exist.”
He pointed out other possible views of the current air strikes.
“From a military standpoint, the air strikes are certainly acceptable as they are a first step toward taking other operations against the bin Laden network and the Taliban regime,” Miller said. “Politically, the air strikes may be dangerous because they risk injuring innocent civilians, but we should be able to maintain our coalition as long as we continue to focus on military and government targets.”
Weisberg said it is clear Bush’s popularity is at an ultimate high. The question is whether Bush takes advantage of his positive polling ratings.
