President Bush’s national ratings have slipped in recent weeks, a trend that some ISU professors say is an accurate reflection of the nation’s feelings.

Bush’s overall popularity rating shows 54 percent of Americans were satisfied with him when polled Jan. 19-21, according to a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. This is lower than December’s 62 percent rating and drastically down from 82 percent in January 2002.

In a separate New York Times/CBS News poll, two-thirds of the 997 adults polled said they are optimistic about Bush’s next two years as president, and 40 percent said they thought the nation would be in a better condition five years from now.

Respondents disagreed with Bush on affirmative action, tax cutting and other issues. Fifty percent of those polled disapproved of how Bush is handling the economy, while 41 percent disapproved of his management of foreign policy.

Kenneth Koelher, interim chairman of statistics, said he believes these surveys do reflect Americans’ true attitudes about Bush.

“I think they probably take a good cross-section of the country,” he said.

Polling is usually conducted through a random phone dialing test, Koehler said.

“They ask [members of the sample population] a question, or a series of questions, and get a yes/no response,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, told the Daily he believes Bush is unaffected by ratings, either positive or negative.

“He’s not looking for popularity — he’s looking to do the job and protect America,” he said. “I don’t think you can do this job on polling. You really have to go by your core convictions.”

Latham said despite Bush’s slip in approval polls, he has managed to maintain high popularity.

“He’s sustained higher ratings, polling-wise, than any president in history,” Latham said.