Bush is like the nightclub pick-up the morning after...voters are wondering what they ever saw in the guy.

The Washington and network press should now quit saying Bush is "popular" and really take him on. The mainstream press should give Ari HELL at the daily press briefings and DEMAND Bush press conferences. I'm sick of the media pandering to Bush...he hasn't earned it, and doesn't deserve it.

This makes no sense. Republicans are always more popular with registered voters than all Americans. Anyway, no poll matters until the war starts.

AC Your wrong

Polls do matter before the war. The worse he is doing now the less bounce he will have. This war will not have a similar affect to bush's poll numbers as 911. This time we will be the ones killing civilians. Americans will never give Bush anything above 70.

AC, where did you come up with that?

Among non-voters - they don't care, that's why they don't vote. They are not paying attention, and the only time they have an opinion is when whatever the president or congress is doing interferes with their lives.

"Cut Taxes!"

"Yeah, cool, it's my my money, I should be able to keep more of it!"

Except that the difference for Joe-Six-Pack might have been a buck ninety eight a week, maybe. On a macro level, though, that cummulative 1.98 is going to make a difference.

"Deficit spending" is something that has been disparaged for long enough that most folks know instinctively that it is a "bad thing", and it's now the rule, not the exception.

Local things are being crunched. Some of these might break through the non-voters consciousness.

War certainly has. 9/11 certainly did. Now, I think whether or not someone with this level of awareness is for or against military action (war) against Iraq is going to depend on whether or not that person has associated Iraq with 9/11 or not. If they have, they are going to be gung-ho, go-get-'em types. If they have not, rather, if they know that there is a difference between the two, they will wonder why the shift in focus. And some of them will be convinced by our government that there is an imminent danger, and some will not.

Up until very recently, Colin Powell had an enormous amount of credibility with the general public. That's wavering now.

But anyway, I think you make a mistake thinking that non-voters think like the internet political junkies. They surely do not.

I doubt I've agreed with AC even once prior to this, but he's certainly correct that the GOP has historically done better with likely or registered voters than with the population at large. This poll is either flawed, or indicative of a shift in political reality that should have Republicans shaking in their shoes.

As soon as the electorate see's Dumbya as Candidate Bush and not pResident Bush, he's a goner.

Democrats must have several stars in alignment for a chance at a 2004 victory.

1- A bad American economy in 2004.

2- The voters NOT to know that this is a worldwide phenomenon and we are in better shape than most other countries.

3- The American military forces to have had a disastrous time in an Iraqi war or subsequent occupation.

4- Democrats need to have positioned themselves in a precarious position to take political advantage of the first 3 things without being seen as capitalizing on the country’s misfortune.

5- MUST have a centrist candidate.

In my view all of these stars must be in perfect alignment to have a fighting chance against Bush in 2004.