The American people and President George W. Bush: The fall, the rise and fall again

In some respects the public's reaction to the performance of the Bush presidency is similar to public reactions to the performance of previous presidents: President Bush had an early-term ``honeymoon," albeit a brief one. The public has ``rallied" in reaction to international crises. Those who rallied were mostly opposition partisans and political independents. Where President Bush's support scores have differed from those of his predecessors is in their duration and intensity. The rallying of public support, after 9/11, reached an unprecedented height, but no other president has fallen so precipitously and maintained such a low level of public approval. The growth in fatalities in Iraq accounts for much of the decline.