Karlyn Bowman Quotations

Whether you agree or disagree with him, the president has taken a pounding on perceptions of his honesty.

It certainly has stopped erosion. Whether it can turn the numbers up significantly remains to be seen.

It certainly is at a very low point.

People are just anxious when troops are in harm's way. That anxiousness extends to other areas.

People have to believe that the situation is getting under control very, very quickly.

It could reflect the return of people's traditional skepticism of federal power. Or perhaps as memories of 9/11 recede, they could just be thinking the government is going too far.

There is a low-level anxiety pervading U.S. society. It's different from anything we've seen in the past.

Public opinion has been remarkably stable for 30 years and at one and the same time deeply contradictory.

After 9/11, people thought Bush's responses were just right and his ratings soared. It's just not clear that that's the case here. The views about this president are pretty hard right now, so I don't think we'll see a significant change. They're pro or opposed to him. The country is deeply divided.

After 9/11 Bush, had perfect pitch in terms of his personal and policy reaction. He hasn't been so surefooted this time.

This is an opportunity for Democrats, but we haven't seen any evidence yet that they are going to make big gains.

Americans, as they always do when they have troops in harm's way, are going to be watching the performance on the ground. While they may be encouraged by the elections . . . at the same time they are going to want to continue to measure how it's going.

This president should be glad he's not running for re-election. But the president is clearly holding his base. It's very important for him to keep the base support in terms of getting things done.

It's unrealistic to expect him to gain back too much more ground given the deep polarization in this country about the Bush presidency.

Iraq is just a great weight holding down perceptions of an economy that is quite robust. Whenever you have troops in harm's way, people are anxious about things in general.

I don't really think Katrina had much effect.