President Bush's job approval rating drops to 54 percent

The still dropping Bush numbers buried in the article about Hispanics being just as we thought, 2/3rds Democrats.

Mr. Bush won the support of 35 percent of Hispanic voters in 2000; in this poll, [only] 21 percent of Hispanics who say they are registered to vote said they would vote for his re-election.

Hispanics approved of Mr. Bush's job performance 52 to 38 percent, while 54 percent said that he "cares about the needs and problem of people like yourself." By contrast, just 40 percent of Hispanics said they had a favorable view of the Republican Party, while 60 percent said they had a favorable view of Democrats.

There is also a sharp divergence of views on Iraq: 49 percent of Hispanics said removing Saddam Hussein from power was not worth the potential loss of American life and other costs of attacking Iraq, compared with 39 percent of all respondents.

On other issues, like abortion and gay rights, the responses clearly broke away from the Democratic model. Hispanics were evenly divided on the question of whether homosexual relations between consenting adults should be legal; among the general public, this position is supported by 54 percent to 39 percent.