Spinning Bush's Bad Numbers

Bush operative Mark McKinnon attempts to put the best face on the president's tanking approval ratings.

But presidential advisers shrug off the latest poll numbers. "I believe . . . the president's recent favorable ratings and Schiavo case [are] probably entirely disconnected," Mark McKinnon, a Bush political strategist, said in an e-mail message. The slipping approval numbers were "more due to rising gas prices, rising interest rates and some recent economic uncertainty." As for Schiavo, McKinnon said he thinks "most people recognize [the] president's efforts as appropriate and simply motivated to save a life."

Try again, Mark. Most people clearly do not think the president's efforts were appropriate. In fact, a majority of Evangelical Christians disapprove of Bush's midnight run to save Terri Schiavo.

McKinnon's "positive spin" is that it isn't the Schiavo controversy dragging Bush's numbers down. People just hate the way he's running the country!