On February 9, DR reviewed results from the latest CNN/Time poll which suggested that the bond of trust between Bush and the American public is undergoing serious erosion. Today, we have results from the just-released ABC News/Washington Post poll which show the same thing, only more so.

By 12 points (54 percent to 42 percent), the public now thinks the Bush administration intentionally exaggerated its evidence that Iraq had WMD. And, by 53 percent to 35 percent, the public thinks the issue of how the administration used intelligence is more important than the accuracy of the intelligence they received.

And here are some very significant figures: just 52 percent now think Bush is "honest and trustworthy", compared to 45 percent who don't. That's down from a 70/26 split on the same question right after the 2002 elcections. And even on "is a strong leader", he is now at 61 percent yes/38 percent no, a considerable drop from a 74/25 split on the question in April of last year, after the US army took Baghdad.

Speaking of the war in Iraq, the poll finds more people saying the war was not worth fighting (50 percent) than say it was (48 percent). This is the first time this question has been net negative and is down from a 70/27 split in favor of the war being worth it in late April of last year. This is a particularly significant finding since the Post question, as with a recent Gallup finding, makes no specific mention of the costs of war (lives, money, etc.).

Turning to Bush's approval numbers, the poll, as DR mentioned yesterday, has his overall rating down to 50 percent, with 47 percent approval. Now, since the Post poll generally runs 5 points or so higher than other public polls on his approval rating (recent example: in the middle of last month, the Post had his approval rating at 58 percent while everybody else was around 53 percent), this suggests his approval rating is really tanking.

On Iraq, his ratings have taken a huge hit, down from 60 percent approval/39 percent disapproval in the middle of last month to 47 percent approval/52 percent disapproval now. That means he's gone from a net +21 to a net -5, a swing of 26 points, in less than two months.

His other approval ratings are also poor, with the exception of handling the US campaign against terrorism, where he still gets 64 percent approval (though even that's down 15 points from late April of last year). For example, his rating on the economy is down to 44 percent approval/54 percent disapproval. That's hardly a surprise when 85 percent of the public says most Americans are not better off financially than they were when Bush took office.

In addition, his rating on education is down to 47 percent approval/45 percent disapproval (by far his worst rating ever in this area), his rating on creating jobs is a horrendous 38 percent disapproval/57 percent disapproval land and on the "cost, availability and coverage of health insurance", he is scraping the bottom with a rating that is net negative by 30 points (32/62).

No wonder John Kerry is faring so well when matched up against Bush these days. He's preferred over Bush by 18 points on the cost, etc. of health insurance, by 14 points on creating jobs, by 9 points on education and by 8 points on the economy. And in the two areas where he currently trails Bush, the situation in Iraq and the US campaign against terrorism, he is actually doing quite a bit better than the Democrats were doing in matchups with Bush in the middle of last month (Kerry v. Bush, of course, wasn't being asked at the time)

On Iraq, Democrats were trailing Bush by 20 points last month; Kerry trails by only 7 points (48-41). And on the campaign against terrorism, Democrats were trailing by 29 points and Kerry trails by only 16 (53-37).

Finally, as mentioned yesterday, Kerry leads Bush by 9 points among registered voters in an election trial heat (52-43). Ah, but does this really mean Kerry's electable or are voters just talking themselves into something, as New Republic writers believe it is their mission in life to point out? (What's next--Diary of a Kerry-o-phobe?)

DR will tackle this controversy in a future post. For the time being, however, he says to these sourpusses: turn those frowns upside down! Good news is good news and positive signs are positive signs. Sometimes the simplest explanations are the best (remember Occam's razor?): Bush is vulnerable and Kerry could beat him (though obviously it's a long way to November, blah, blah, blah).

OK: end of sermon. Now TNR can get back to pointing out what fools the voters are and how equally foolish the rest of us are for taking them seriously.