September 18, 2005--Thirty-five percent (35%) of Americans now say that President Bush has done a good or excellent job responding to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. That's down from 39% before his speech from New Orleans.

The latest Rasmussen Reports survey shows that 41% give the President poor marks for handling the crisis, that's up 37% before the speech.

Fifty percent (50%) of Americans favor the main proposal from that speech--a federal commitment of $200 billion to help rebuild New Orleans. Twenty-seven percent (27%) are opposed and 23% are not sure.

The spending plan has not been well received by conservative voters--just 43% favor the huge federal commitment partisan while 37% are opposed. This is especially striking given how supportive the President's base has remained throughout his Administration.

The President's reconstruction plan is favored by 66% of liberal voters. Still, only 10% of liberals give the President a good or an excellent rating for handling the crisis.

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Following the speech, the President's rating for handling the Katrina crisis fell eight points among Republicans (from 71% good or excellent to 63%). The President also draws good or excellent marks from 11% of Democrats and 31% of those not affiliated with either major political party.

Fifty-seven percent (57%) of black voters support the federal reconstruction spending while just 17% are opposed. Among white voters, 49% favor the spending and 29% are opposed. This is the first Bush Administration proposal hat has attracted more support from black Americans than from white Americans.

Consumer confidence has recovered from its post-Katrina lows, but not from the surge in oil prices that preceded Katrina.

Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information.

Rasmussen Reports was the nation's most accurate polling firm during the Presidential election and the only one to project both Bush and Kerry's vote total within half a percentage point of the actual outcome.

During Election 2004, RasmussenReports.com was also the top-ranked public opinion research site on the web. We had twice as many visitors as our nearest competitor and nearly as many as all competitors combined.

Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade.

Commentary:
Democrats will hand Bush a victory with Roberts. It's why they lose elections. They give Bush power every time they give in to him. At some point they have to figure out how to win again. Roberts refused to answer even their basic questions. Justices on the court today have no problem telling people what they think, but today we're told nominees can't tell us anything because it may appear as if they're prejudging a case.

In reality, Roberts was being interviewed by Bush for the Court while he was hearing a case about the Bush presidency. If perceived bias is a problem with Roberts why didn't he recuse himself from that case? Democrats who vote for Roberts are unfit for the presidency and they'll be considered intellectual dwarves by left wing bloggers.

Support for Bush and the GOP is falling like a rock. Dems should take them out now and become the shadow government.