[Ninong]

Speaking of the Grecians...

Earlier today in Sydney, Australia, President Bush thanked his "Austrian" hosts for inviting him to the "OPEC" summit.

He's in Australia attending the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit.

Here.

P.S. -- Bush has appeared in public praising John Howard and his government's policies, much to the delight of the Australian Labour Party. I'm sure they will use those clips in their campaign ads.

[Ninong]

24%

The latest Zogby Poll has Bush's job approval at 24%.

This is considerably lower than most other recent polls that have him anywhere from 28-32%. The Zogby poll had him at 29% last month, so this is a 5 point drop in the past month alone. This poll comes out the third Wednesday of each month.

Four months ago when Newsweek had Bush at 26%, they had this to say:

The new numbers—a 2 point drop from the last NEWSWEEK Poll at the beginning of May—are statistically unchanged, given the poll’s 4 point margin of error. But the 26 percent rating puts Bush lower than Jimmy Carter, who sunk to his nadir of 28 percent in a Gallup poll in June 1979. In fact, the only president in the last 35 years to score lower than Bush is Richard Nixon. Nixon’s approval rating tumbled to 23 percent in January 1974, seven months before his resignation over the botched Watergate break-in.

According to this latest Zogby Poll, only 26% of Americans believe the country is headed in the right direction.

They also polled preferences for both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates:

Republican candidates
Rudy Giuliani - 28%
Fred Thompson - 20%
Mitt Romney - 14%
John McCain - 8%
Undecided - 18%

Democratic candidates
Hillary Clinton - 46%
Barack Obama - 25%
John Edwards - 9%
Undecided - 12%