Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush's overall job approval rating in the Zogby America poll slumped to a record low as three-fifths of Americans criticized the government's response to Hurricane Katrina.

Forty-one percent of respondents in the poll taken Sept. 6-7 gave Bush positive marks for his job performance, down from 45 percent in a July 30 survey and 50 percent in mid-February. Bush got negative marks from 59 percent of respondents, up from 55 percent in July and 50 percent in February in the poll.

The poll showed 60 percent characterized Bush's handling of the hurricane as ``fair'' to ``poor,'' while 36 percent graded his performance ``good'' to ``excellent.'' More than half of those polled -- 53 percent -- said the country is headed in the wrong direction.

``The president has managed to do early in his second term what his father did in just one term: go from record-high approval numbers in the aftermath of 9/11 to his present numbers,'' John Zogby, chief executive of polling company Zogby International, said in a statement.

The survey of 1,157 likely voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points, Zogby said.

Bush would lose elections if he ran against the past four U.S. presidents, yet would edge Massachusetts Senator John Kerry - - his Democratic opponent in the 2004 election -- by 1 percentage point, the poll showed.

Bush is under criticism from Democrats and Republicans for responding slowly to Hurricane Katrina, which battered Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Aug. 29 and may have claimed thousands of lives. The White House yesterday asked Congress for $51.8 billion more to cover temporary housing, health care, unemployment insurance and other relief efforts in coming weeks. Congress approved an earlier request for $10.5 billion last week.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Brendan Murray in Washington at  brmurray@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 8, 2005 11:50 EDT

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