THE PRESIDENT'S APPROVAL RATING is at an all-time low of 38%, according to a new poll conducted by Newsweek.

...[O]nly 28 percent of Americans say they are “satisfied with the way things are going” in the country, down from 36 percent in August and 46 percent in December, after the president’s re-election. This is another record low and two points below the satisfaction level recorded immediately after the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal came to light. Fully two-thirds of Americans are not satisfied with the direction of the country.

But Katrina’s most costly impact could be a loss of faith in government generally, and the president, in particular. A majority of Americans (57 percent) say “government’s slow response to what happened in New Orleans” has made them lose confidence in government’s ability to deal with another major natural disaster. Forty-seven percent say it has made them lose confidence in the government’s ability to prevent another terrorist attack like 9/11, but 50 percent say is has not. (Note: our question asked about “government” in general, so we cannot say whether respondents meant state, local, federal or a combo of any of the three.)

More critical to President Bush—and the GOP’s future as the nation’s majority party: most Americans, 52 percent, say they do not trust the president “to make the right decisions during a domestic crisis” (45 percent do). The numbers are exactly the same when the subject is trust of the president to make the right decisions during an international crisis.

Why the gloom? Forty percent of Americans say the federal government’s response to the crisis in New Orleans was poor. Thirty-two percent say it was fair; 21 percent say it was good and five percent believe it was excellent. Americans don’t think much of the local and state governments’ responses either: 35 percent say state and local officials did a poor job and 34 percent say they did a fair job; 20 percent say they did a good job and five percent say an excellent job after the storm hit.

The Katrina effect is evident in how Americans rate the president personally. In every category, the view of the president is at all-time lows for the NEWSWEEK poll. Only 49 percent of Americans now believe the president has strong leadership qualities. The same percentage of registered voters feel that way, 49 percent—down from 63 percent the week before Bush’s reelection. Only 42 percent of Americans believe the president cares about people like them; 44 percent of registered voters feel that way—down from 50 percent the week before the election. And only 49 percent of Americans and the same percentage of registered voters believe Bush is intelligent and well-informed—down from 59 percent before the election.

If this were September 2004, or September 2008, I would say the Republicans are toast. But as historically low as these numbers are, I don't think they will last long enough to do the Democrats any real good, for three reasons:

• Bush has three more years as president, and the public is incredibly fickle.
• The poll results are still pretty sharply divided along ideological lines. Bush still has his base, and they are hard-core loyal.

Okay, that's only two. But I'm still very reluctant to take heart from these results that the American public is finally realizing that Dracula is in the White House. I'm a pessimist.