22 20 2004 poll.

It comes as no surprise that Bush's credibility is becoming more incredulous on an almost daily basis. This analysis by Andrew Kohut, and Mike McCurry merely points to what everyone knows; you lose a person's trust, and it's difficult to win back.

Here's a bit of the poop:

Some White House aides dismissed that poll as an aberration because it was taken after a run of bad news for the president. But they grew concerned when a second poll, released Thursday by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, also showed Bush's image slipping.

According to Pew Director Andrew Kohut, that image is "at the low point of his presidency."

The most dramatic evidence of a shift came from poll participants' answers when asked to provide a one-word description of Bush. In a survey in May, positive descriptions outnumbered negative ones by a ratio of almost 2-to-1, Kohut said. In Thursday's poll, the numbers of positive and negative responses were even.

Perhaps most troubling to a president who prides himself on being forthright, the most frequently used negative word to describe Bush was "liar" – a word that never showed up in the May survey, Kohut said.

This all comes at a critical moment for the president's re-election strategy. With Kerry the heavy favorite to win the Democratic nomination, the Bush campaign team is poised to launch a multimillion-dollar ad blitz designed to portray the Massachusetts senator as a hypocrite who says one thing but does another.

Looking back on the tactics used in Bush's previous run for the White House, that has almost always been the first move against an opponent showing any strength. When Arizona Sen. John McCain won the New Hampshire primary in 2000, Bush adopted the catchphrase, "John McCain says one thing and does another." Later, in the general campaign, then-Vice President Al Gore got the same treatment.

This time, however, the public's growing unease over Bush's trustworthiness makes the use of such a tactic more complicated.

Lots more at link.

Some pundits have claimed that Kerry is peaking now. I think it more likely that Bush's credilbility is under siege. Finally.

This is the first time I've seen polled Americans use the word "liar" to describe Bush. Yes, it does make me sport a grin..albeit a small one.