Why bother with approval ratings now?

The lame duck isn't going to get any more popular until we nab Bin Laden. And at this point, I don't think that would even do it.

According to a Sept. 26-27 USA Today/Gallup poll, just 27% of Americans approve of the job George W. Bush is doing as president, the lowest rating of his presidency.

Bush has registered 28% approval ratings several times this year, in the spring and summer months as gas prices rose. His high rating for the year is only 34%.
The all-time low rating for any president is 22%, for Harry Truman in February 1952. Bush now joins Truman and Richard Nixon as the only presidents who have had approval ratings of 27% or lower in Gallup Polls.

Bush, like Truman, has the distinction of having some of the highest individual approval ratings in Gallup polling history and some of the lowest. That includes a record-high 90% approval rating for Bush just after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Truman recorded an 87% approval in 1945 just after V-E Day.

Polarizing...ooooooh!