Through the last US presidential campaign, George Bush was running on what appeared to be dangerously low approval ratings. Historical precedents suggested that an incumbent who could not get above 50% had little chance of winning. On election day, he had edged above the threshold by a few points but since November the figures have been falling. Salon now expects Mr Bush to be sworn into office on January 20 for a second term with the lowest job-approval rating of any US president in the last 80 years. It is a rather odd state of affairs when you consider he has control of Congress, a margin of several million in the popular vote and - thanks to Time - the accolade of being its person of the year.
Daily Kos is less perplexed than fuming - and not just about the president. "I could deal with losing to a popular incumbent. But it's tough to deal with the most unpopular incumbent to win re-election," he writes. "What makes me angry was Kerry and his gang's inability to take advantage of the situation […] they should be lined up and shot."
