....from the Washington Post:

Behind Bush's Slump

By David Ignatius
Friday, April 8, 2005; Page A25

It was less than three months ago that President Bush launched his second term with a soaring inaugural address and bold promises about how he would spend his new political capital. Today much of that momentum seems to have been lost, and analysts are puzzling over why.

Polls show striking erosion in support for the president and in confidence about the nation's course. An NBC/Wall Street Journal survey released Wednesday found that only 34 percent of those polled felt the country was headed in the right direction, a decline of eight percentage points since the previous survey in February. The president's job approval rating in the NBC/Journal poll had also fallen, to 48 percent from 50 percent in February.

Poll numbers bounce around from week to week, but the trend for Bush has clearly been down. A USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll released two weeks ago pegged his approval rating at 45 percent, which the pollsters said was the lowest of his presidency; that rating improved slightly, to 48 percent, in a USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll released this week. But that poll found just 41 percent approved of Bush's handling of the economy, and a mere 35 percent backed his handling of Social Security.

"President Bush seems to have slipped into a second-term slump," wrote USA Today's Susan Page. And looking at the numbers, it's hard to argue with that conclusion. Who would have thought three months ago that Iraq news would be a relief from the president's domestic troubles?

So what has happened to the president and his political capital since Inauguration Day? Many analysts cite two obvious factors: the president's intervention in the Terri Schiavo case and his barnstorming for private Social Security accounts. Both stands seemed to have frightened voters, including many who had voted for Bush. An astonishing 82 percent of Americans believed that Congress and the president shouldn't have gotten involved in the Schiavo tragedy, according to a CBS poll released in late March. I can't remember the last time 82 percent of the nation agreed about anything.

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