Survey USA July (dis)approval map

Bush's July numbers are up at the Survey USA website.  The weighted average is unchanged from last month at 37%.

Bush got slightly less unpopular in most states, but this was offset by declining approval in the populous states of California, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, and Florida.   Bush's numbers have sunk to a record low in my home state of Illinois.  On the other hand, what's the matter with Utah?  The map:

Back in May, the most remarkable feature of the map was the deep blue of Missouri that spread westward to Colorado and eastward to South Carolina.  The current map shows that the plunge in Bush's approval in this part of the country has been completely reversed.  Here is the May map so you can see how things have changed since Bush reached the nadir (so far) of his popularity:

It might have been expected that the recent run-up in gas prices would help erode Bush's popularity, since we've seen a rough inverse relationship between these statistics.  But it could be that high gas prices, painful as they are, are old news.  The past month has also been marked by negative developments in international relations.  Recall John Dean's recent assertion that 23% of the population tends to accept authoritarianism; if these people perceive the world as becoming more dangerous, they will cling to authoritarian figures all the more -- and support such measures as warrantless surveillance, torture, etc.  To people like us, it may seem paradoxical because we recognize the President's role in making the world more dangerous.

It would require a deeper analysis of the numbers to really try and pick the collective brain of the American public.  Embedded in the Survey USA poll results are breakdowns by age, gender, party identification, and about half a dozen other factors.   In some states, the numbers are broken down by region or metropolitan area.  (For instance, you can find that only 13% of Chicagoans approve of Bush.)  Fellow Kossack dreaminonempty has been putting together maps of all these breakdowns every month since last November, usually within a couple weeks of the poll results being released.