Inspired by ben114's diary. The Schiavo wingnuttery is nearly proving the equal of Abu Ghraib in pushing Bush's poll numbers south. Here are the numbers from the five polls that were in the field sometime during the past seven days, compared with the numbers from the last installment of each poll:

	 Approve   Dis	 Margin  Shift Since Last
Time	   48	   46	   +2	       -8
Gallup	   45	   49	   -4	       -12
CBS	   43	   48	   -5	       -10
Pew	   45	   46	   -1		0
Newsweek   45      48      -3          -11
Mean       45.2    47.4    -2.2        -8.2

Gallup's internals show the movement coming from the Republican base:The new poll found the largest drop for Bush came among men, self-described conservatives and churchgoers. Independent political analysts said the drop may reflect opposition to the White House and Congress intervening in the Terri Schiavo matter. "You have to wonder if people didn't feel that the president and the Congress couldn't be spending their time working on Social Security and other problems," said Charlie Cook, editor of the non-partisan Cook Political Report. Long-term repercussions are anyone's guess. For now, however, clearly Bush and Republican leaders have been damaged by this travesty.