Those nasty job approval ratings and polls…
It’s been in the news that President Bush’s job approval rating is down to 28%. Some of the polls I’ve read show his approval ratings ranging from 28% to 38%. How low can you go? I mean sooner or later the only people approving of you would be your relatives…and it looks like right now the only ones approving of W is the conservative Republicans.
Nonetheless, Congress can’t be too proud as their approval ratings as they range from 34% to 44% in recent polls.
Is the country headed in the right or wrong direction? Only about 20-25% believes it is.
The nation-wide polls for President still shows Clinton leading the Democrats with Obama second and Giuliani leading the Republicans with McCain second. But, these are nation-wide polls. These will be good after the primaries are over. The real polls are in the key primary and caucus states, like Iowa, New Hampshire, etc. For example, some polls in Iowa show John Edwards leading the democrats.

Being there and voting…
TWW tracks the votes in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House. I use a couple of sources to see how my Montana elected officials (all three of them) vote on the issues important to me. Probably one of the best is a Votes Database through Washington Post’s WEBSITE.
Congratulations go out to U.S. Senator Max Baucus, D-Mont., and to Congressman Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., for having perfect attendance in casting their votes so far this Congress. Baucus has made all 152 votes. Rehberg has made all 293 votes.
According the Post, U.S. Senator Jon Tester, D-Mont., recently missed two votes on May 7. It appears these votes were regarding S. 1082, Prescription Drug User Fee Amendments of 2007.
The Senators and Representatives who are running for President have missed some votes, too. Hillary Clinton has managed to only miss three votes. John McCain has missed 65 votes.
TWW would like to see Senators and Representatives issue press releases regarding their missed votes so we constituents would know how they would have voted and why they missed their votes. They work for us.

Wake Me Up When September Ends…
Summer has come and passed, the innocent can never last, wake me up when September ends. –Green Day

It looks like September is a key time regarding the war in the Iraq. By then officials believe we will have a good indication if the surge worked. If it does not, then The Western Word (TWW) believes pulling back and significantly reducing U.S. troop strength may be the only option left. The ball is squarely in the Iraq Government’s court now on standing up a military and police force capable of keeping the violence down.