CBS has released their latest poll, which was conducted since the terror alert last week. There are some very interesting numbers in here.

• Bush’s approval rating is at 36%, which is the same number from last month. Even more interesting is his disapproval rating has jumped from 55% to 57%. While that is still in the MOE, it makes one wonder if more people are making up their minds about Bush being a failure. It certainly is an indication of that.
• Bush’s on dealing with terrorism remains at 51%. His disapproval has jumped up one percentage point from 42% to 43%. Again the same analysis applies as above.

Now comes the real interesting data. Remember this poll was conducted after the news of the terrorist plot last week. Actually it was conducted August 11th – 13th, so it was a couple of days after the news of the plot and people had time to really hear about it.

Even in light of the news last week of the foiled bombing plans, Iraq is still a growing concern for Americans. Now one could argue that is because of people still trying to equate Iraq to the war on terrorism, especially considering the 10% increase in concern on terrorism, but something else comes into play here – his approval/disapproval rating on Terrorism and in general. This increased concern is in fact very bad news for Bush considering his dim approval and high disapproval on handling his job and the war on terror. That actually makes this argument moot.

So why would people still think poorly of Bush? Didn’t he just possibly save us from another deadly attack? Well there is another part of this poll that is interesting to look at . 71% feel that the new restrictions on airline passengers, forbidding the carrying on of liquids and gels, are necessary. That is almost 3/4 approval of the new restrictions. Perhaps another question should have been thrown in asking if these restrictions should have been in place before the news last week.

We keep hearing more stories of how liquid explosives have been a known threat for a long time now. We also hear how the Bush administration worked to cut funding on detection technology for this specific threat. One must ask themselves why. Why did Bush ignore this known threat and then only act once there was a plot uncovered to use that. Remember in 2001 when they said “no one would have imagined they would turn planes into weapons”? The same statement applies today. Actually it appears that the respondents on this poll have imagined that and are concerned about it, as well as most Americans. The only ones who still can’t imagine this is the Bush administration.

Reading into these numbers, you can definitely see that America is wanting a new course in Iraq and on Terrorism. They are also not concerned about the Republicans’ number one platform – immigration. This spells out even more trouble for the Republicans this fall as they are sticking to their guns on their very stale platform. America’s views and opinions are changing, but the Republicans’ aren’t and that is very promising for Democrats.

You can view the entire poll here (pdf format).