Frankly, the use of public opinion polls themselves are in my opinion starting to pose a threat to democracy themselves. The newspapers give them more weight than general elections. Since November 2006, where the public clearly indicated strong sentiment against the war, the tendency of newspapers to focus on stories like these--job approval ratings--undercuts the results of elections. IMO, the public is getting increasingly frustrated with elections that do not yield the results that the public voted for. The poll tells me one thing, statistically, that about one third of the public failed to learn the scientific method in school, as they will support Bush no matter how high the stack of evidence is against him on the mismanagement of the war, the economy, and a host of other issues. These job approval stories also miss one of the biggest threats to our democracy--the abject failure of the Supreme Court. It is depressing to realize that one-third of the country would, in effect, jump off the Brooklyn Bridge.