NEW POLL NOT GOOD NEWS FOR BUSH ADMINISTRATION

The new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll is out, and some of the results will not bode well for President Bush and his administration.

For instance, only 41 percent of those surveyed said they believed the President was being "honest and straightfoward", a drop of nine points since January and his lowest mark of his term in office on the question. A 49 percent pluarity of the 1,009 respondents surveyed July 8-11 disapproved of Dubya's job performance, with 46 percent giving him a positive approval rating. Only once has his approval rating been worse, in June of last year when he only earned a 45 percent mark.

The choice of a Supreme Court justice to replace the retiring Sandra Day O'Connor was also among the subjects asked by the bipartisan team of Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart and Republican Bill McInturff. The survey showed that 41 percent favoured the president to appoint a "strong conservative" to the high court, while 40 percent would like for him to take into consideration of secular and liberal groups.

Strong majorities say that it would be a positive step for the nation if Bush's choice was one who would continue to allow references to God in public life (63 percent), is a woman (60 percent), and upholds affirmative action laws and policies (55 percent). Half of the polled said it would be a negative step for the country if the new justice changes the court's balance on Roe -vs- Wade in an effort to overturn legalized abortion.

UPDATE: Thursday, 7:30 PM The USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll taken July 7-10 mirrors much of what the NBC/WSJ survey noted, especially strong majorities in favour of a female jurist to replace Justice O'Connor and against reversing Roe -vs- Wade.

Sounds like the Prez has his work cut out for him, eh?