Online polls are known to be inaccurate due to several factors, such as self-selection, word-of-mouth bandwagon effects and even deliberate attempts to stuff the ballot box. MSNBC's disclaimer mentions these factrors, and provides examples, such as a poll in the middle of the Lewinksy scandal in which 74% thought Clinton should resign; while a more scientific poll with a carefully-randomized population found only 34% of people wanted Clinton out of office.

Those effects only tend to weight the results to one side or the other of the middle; you might "reflect" the difference around the center and see the opposite tendency. But 94% is not a tendency; that's a tsunami that can't be explained by self-selection or even a bandwagon effect alone.

Keep an eye on that poll. I'd expect that as the word gets out in the Conservative community, Conservatives will flock to the poll to stuff the ballot box to, in their minds, "restore balance". And there may be a counter bandwagon among Liberals. The key is whether the Conservatives can muster enough support to reverse the results even if they deliberately try to stuff the ballot box. How far can they hammer it down from 94%? I'll bet they won't be able to push it below 60% no matter how hard they try. In the end we'll see that fanatic partisan support for Bush is smaller than the true mainstream disgust with Bush.

Did you know that Bush's current approval rating is in the same ballpark as Nixon's at the height of the Watergate scandal? 35-42% consistently these days. That's the level at which you hit the wall of hardcore partisanship, "my politician right or wrong". A Presiden'ts approval rating can't go much lower, and in the case of Nixon it dipped only a few percentage points lower at the time he resigned. Bush is skating on thin ice, and the ice won't have to get much thinner before he falls through into the cold waters of impeachment. Not with this Republican Congress, of course, they'll cover for one of their own no matter how egregious the betrayal. But if in the 2006 election a core theme becomes "we need a Democratic Congress to impeach the bastard", election of a Democratic Congress will be taken as a mandate to begin impeachment.

FYI, the latest Newsweek poll reveals: 61% negative/34% positive on Bush's handling of Iraq; 50% say that we're losing ground in Iraq and only 40% think we're making progress; 26% support an indefinite occupation of Iraq; and Bush's overall approval ratings have dropped to 42% positive/51% negative. On the domestic front, Bush's approval rating is 54% negative.

Some graphs of Nixon's approval ratings with links to data sources: "Recording Artist" blog