Scandal Visits the White House

" 'Bush stands at a precipice,' says Carroll Doherty of the non-partisan Pew Research Center. 'He's lost ground among independents. He seems to be starting to lose ground among his own party. And he lost the Democrats a long time ago.' "

Here is the transcript and video of CNN analyst William Schneider discussing the poll results with Wolf Blitzer.

Blitzer: "Bill, how do these new numbers compare with other past two-term presidents?

Schneider: "Wolf, let's see.

"At this point in their second terms, Presidents Clinton, Reagan and Eisenhower were all about 60 percent job approval. As you just reported, Bush is at 40. That puts him in the company of Lyndon Johnson, after a summer of urban violence and escalation in Vietnam, and just above Richard Nixon in the middle of Watergate.

"Gulp."

Here are the complete poll results .

Consider some of these responses.

* Just your best guess, do you think George W. Bush has taken steps to help victims of Hurricane Katrina mostly because he sincerely cares about the victims, or mostly for political reasons? Sincerely cares about the victims, 42 percent; Political reasons, 56 percent.

* In view of the developments since we first sent our troops to Iraq, do you think the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq, or not? Yes, a mistake, 59 percent; No, not, 39 percent.

* Which comes closest to your view about what the U.S. should now do about the number of U.S. troops in Iraq? Send more troops, 8 percent; Keep as now, 26 percent; Withdraw some troops, 33 percent; Withdraw all troops, 30 percent.

* If you had to choose, which of the following would you say would be the best way for the government to pay for the problems caused by Hurricane Katrina? Increase federal budget deficit, 15 percent; Raise taxes, 17 percent; Cut spending for war in Iraq, 54 percent; Cut spending for domestic programs, 7 percent.