Bush's ratings continue their downhill slide

President Bush continues to suffer the lowest presidential approval ratings in decades among California voters, while two-thirds of the electorate believe the country is heading in the wrong direction, the highest proportion since an economic recession in July 1992, according to a Field Poll released Friday.

The survey found that only 28 percent of the state's registered voters approve of Bush, while 64 percent disapprove and 8 percent have no opinion. Less than 30 percent of California voters have approved of Bush since September 2006.

Poll Director Mark DiCamillo had one word for the Republican president: "Stuck."

"I think that word sums it up," DiCamillo said. "We have never before seen the kind of low ratings he's been getting for this extended period of time. We've seen low ratings before, but either for a president like Nixon right before he resigned or for a president right before he was voted out of office like (Bush's) father or Carter."

Only Nixon has had a worse performance rating than Bush among California voters since 1970. Under fire for the Watergate scandal, Nixon received approval from 24 percent of voters in August 1974 just before he resigned from office.

Bush's only positive approval ratings come from his "strongly conservative" base. The poll found 67 percent of those voters approve of the president. Comparatively, "moderately conservative" voters are split, with 43 percent approval and 43 percent disapproval, while "middle-of-the-road" and "liberal" voters have even less support for the president.

Voters surveyed Dec. 10-17 were particularly critical of Bush's handling of the Iraq war, with only 24 percent approving. They also gave him low marks on his handling of the economy, with 34 percent approving. Approval levels in both cases haven't changed since August.

Hector Barajas, spokesman for the California Republican Party, blamed negative politics for Bush's low approval numbers.

"For the last two years, we've had over eight Democratic presidential candidates who have been playing Monday morning quarterback on every single policy President Bush has put forth," Barajas said. "… Had anyone else been in his shoes, I don't think they would have done as good a job as he has."

George Sauerbier, a 59-year-old GOP retired school custodian who lives in Truckee, said he voted for Bush in 2004 but now feels that Bush "has really sold out the country to the big corporations."

"Initially following the 9/11 disaster, when we decided to aggressively raise war against Islam, I approved of him," Sauerbier said. "But now I feel that the war is nothing more than a show to enhance the profits of big corporations."

Sauerbier added, however, that he thinks "Congress is absolutely doing the worst job in the history of this country."

The Field Poll will release its most recent voter opinions about Congress next week. The last poll in October showed that only 22 percent of California voters approved of Congress, while 64 percent disapproved.

The December poll found 67 percent of California voters believe the nation is on the wrong track, compared with 24 percent who said it is going in the right direction. The last time such a high proportion said the nation was on the wrong track was in July 1992, when 81 percent felt that way.

"That was in the midst of a prolonged recession," DiCamillo said of the 1992 numbers. "Now, it's a general malaise and feeling that the administration is off-track."

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• Call Kevin Yamamura, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5548.