Poll: Less than half in U.S. think Bush is honest

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Less than half of Americans now say they think President Bush is honest, according to an AP-Ipsos poll taken at a time of increasing concerns about Iraq, a potential problem for a president who won re-election declaring that "people know where I stand."

The percentage of people who say they consider Bush honest has dropped slightly from the start of the year. In January, 53 percent described him that way in the AP-Ipsos poll, while 45 percent said they did not believe he was honest. Now, people are just about evenly split — 48 percent saying he's honest and 50 percent saying he's not.

"Whether you agree or disagree with him, the president has taken a pounding on perceptions of his honesty," said Karlyn Bowman, a public opinion analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. She cited as one example the administration's claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, but none have been found.

A solid majority still see Bush as likable and a strong leader, but a growing number view the president's confidence as arrogance, up from 49 percent in January to 56 percent now.

Click here for the rest.

I've been meaning to post this since last week. Better late than never, I suppose.

The only reason this is surprising is because of the bizarre attitudes of the US public these last four years or so. That is, of course a majority of Americans distrust Bush: he's lied about everything from weapons of mass destruction to John McCain to global warming, and he's closely associated with sleaze-balls like Karl Rove. Thing is, this has been known for most of the time he's been in office, but only now are people coming to their senses. The truly surprising thing about all this is how the man was so consistently deified in the wake of 9/11 and for years afterward. How can so many people be so naive? Well, Americans may be rubes, but it appears that they also embrace the old "fool me twice" maxim that Bush so marvelously garbled not too long ago. 'Bout time.

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