Total Failure

Fewer people consider Bush to be honest and trustworthy now than did a year ago, and 53 percent said they believe his administration deliberately misled the public about Iraq's purported weapons program before the U.S. invasion in 2003, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll found. Fifty-eight percent of those polled said Bush's second term has been a failure so far, while 38 percent said they consider it a success. 52 percent consider his entire presidency a failure to date, with 46 percent calling it successful. (Complete poll results)

Bush defended his performance Thursday, pointing to an improved economy despite higher prices for gasoline, heating oil and natural gas. "We've got a record, and a good one," he said. "That's what I intend to campaign on and explain to people why I made the decisions I made, and why they're necessary to protect the American people, and why they've been necessary to keep this economy strong -- and why the policies we've got will keep this economy strong in the future."

And 64 percent said things in the United States have gotten worse in the past five years, while 28 percent said things have improved.

For the first time since Bush took office in 2001, a majority of those polled said the president -- who campaigned as "a uniter, not a divider" -- has been a divisive leader. Fifty-four percent called Bush a divider, while 41 percent called him a uniter.
Posted on The Human Stain