POSITIVE RATINGS CHANGES SINCE 9/11/01: SUMMARY

Base: All adults

POSITIVE RATINGS	Soon After 9/11	Feb. 2003	April 2003	Aug. 2003	Oct. 2003	Dec. 2003	Feb. 2004
President George Bush	88%	52%	70%	57%	59%	50%	51%
Secretary of State Colin Powell	88%	76%	81%	72%	70%	74%	65%
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld	78%	56%	71%	55%	47%	57%	50%
Attorney General John Ashcroft	65%	51%	57%	48%	42%	51%	44%
Vice President Dick Cheney	69%	45%	55%	42%	42%	42%	41%
Republicans in Congress	67%	43%	52%	41%	40%	37%	40%
Democrats in Congress	68%	38%	39%	30%	34%	28%	33%
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist	NA	37%	39%	32%	29%	28%	31%
House Speaker Dennis Hastert	52%	33%	41%	29%	29%	24%	26%

via Harris Interactive | The Harris Poll – Bush Approval Ratings Remain Stable; Other Leader Ratings Drop

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Colin Powell was pretty much the only one to “survive” the Bush Admistration, in terms of positive public opinion.  Powell endorsed Obama for many of the reasons I raised in the title of this post.  He called out McCain for the b.s. campaign, and Palin for being an unqualified neophyte.  Powell said we should talk to our enemies and while he loves John McCain, like Joe Biden, he thinks a McCain Presidency would probably be a disaster on a number of fronts (economic, international, etc.).