format_quote Originally Posted by Bush's Online Biography
Time magazine named George W. Bush as its Person of the Year for 2000 and 2004, hailing him as the most influential person for these two years. Bush began his presidency with approval ratings near 50%. In the time of national crisis following the September 11 attacks, Bush enjoyed approval ratings of greater than 85% (You can thank Al Queda for that), maintaining 80–90% approval for four months after the attacks. Since then, his approval ratings and approval of handling of domestic and foreign policy issues steadily dropped. Polls conducted in early 2006 showed an average of around 40% for Bush, up slightly from the previous September, but still historically low from a President coming off his State of the Union Address, which generally provides a boost. As of November 9, 2006, an average of major polls indicated that Bush's approval rating stood at 32.0%.
At the beginning of his first term, Bush was regarded by some as lacking legitimacy due to his narrow victory in Florida and the attendant controversy surrounding his electoral college victory, which included accusations of vote suppression and tampering. Activist and filmmaker Michael Moore's 2004 movie Fahrenheit 9/11 accused Bush of using public sentiments following 9/11 for political purposes and lying about the cause for war in Iraq.
Bush enjoyed strong support among Americans holding conservative views, as well as the military and those who support a military agenda. In the 2004 elections, 95-98% of the Republican electorate approved of him. This support waned, however, due mostly to Republicans' growing frustration with Bush on the issues of spending and illegal immigration. Many Republicans began criticizing Bush on his policies in Iraq, Iran and the Palestinian Territories.
A poll taken in mid-September 2006 found that 48 percent of Americans believed the war with Iraq had made the U.S. less safe, while 41 percent believed the war had made the U.S. safer from terrorism. Another poll showed that a majority of Americans, by a margin of 61 to 35 percent, believed that the United States was not better off because of Bush's policies.
From time to time, Bush's intellectual capacities were questioned by the news media and other politicians. Detractors tended to cite the various linguistic errors made by Bush during his public speeches (colloquially known as Bushisms). Bush's habit of mispronouncing words received much ridicule in the media and in popular culture. Even as early as the 2000 presidential debates, this was the subject of a Saturday Night Live sketch (see Strategery). He is not the only American president to be criticized for this.
At the conclusion of 2006, an AP-AOL News telephone poll of 1,004 adults found President George W. Bush to be both the top villain and hero of the year. The president was followed in the villain poll by Osama bin Laden, who took in 8 percent to Bush's 25 percent, Saddam Hussein (6 percent) and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (5 percent). In the hero poll, Bush's 13 percent was followed by: Soldiers/troops in Iraq (6 percent), Oprah Winfrey (3 percent), Barack Obama (3 percent) and Jesus Christ (3 percent).
An anti-Iraq War protester in London carries a placard calling Bush the "World's #1 Terrorist".
Bush has been widely criticized in the international community; he was targeted by the global anti-war and anti-globalization campaigns, and criticized for his foreign policy in general. Bush's policies were also the subject of heated criticism in the 2002 elections in Germany and the 2006 elections in Canada. Bush was openly condemned by current and former international leaders such as Gerhard Schröder, Jean Chrétien, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Romano Prodi, Paul Martin, and Hugo Chavez. Later in Bush's presidency, tensions arose between himself and Vladimir Putin, which has led to a cooling of their relationship. In the same time he has good relationship with Tony Blair, Vicente Fox and some other leaders of foreign countries. Diplomatic visits made by Bush were accompanied by large-scale protests.
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