What Drives Bush's Job Approval? Handling of Foreign policy
Views of the president’s handling of the Iraq situation, and foreign policy more generally, drive his overall job approval ratings, and Bush’s recent slide in the polls reflects growing public doubts about Iraq.
Consistently, the president’s overall job approval ratings are more closely tied to evaluations of his handling of foreign policy and Iraq than any other issues, including the economy, the response to Hurricane Katrina, or terrorism policy. Put another way, nearly everyone who approves of the president’s performance in Iraq approves of his overall job performance, while nearly everyone who disapproves of how he’s handled Iraq disapproves overall as well. While this is the case with many evaluations of Bush’s job performance, the linkage is tightest when it comes to foreign policy and Iraq.
In this regard, Bush’s current standing in the polls, while affected by the public’s gloomy economic outlook and concerns about energy prices, immigration and the government’s response to Katrina, is anchored most directly to the situation in Iraq. It will be very difficult for the president to revive his job approval ratings without achieving clear progress in Iraq in the public’s eye.
What Drives Bush's Job Approval?  | Handling of  | 80  | Foreign policy  | 799  | Iraq  | 68 2 74  | Economy  | Katrina res ponse  | Tax policy  | Terrorism  | 67  | Social Security  | 66  | Energy policy  | 66  | Health policy  | _65  | Environment  | Education  | _64  | Immigration  | Average correlation betw een Bush job appr oval and approval  | of his handling of each issue over the past year. 