CBS News trumpets a new poll which shows the President with a 34-percent approval rating. Seventy-percent object to the DP World deal, though it is unclear how many know what it is. (The MSM, in large part, has not told them.) Two of three think Bush has not fixed Hurricane Katrina, thought, CBS News concedes, that’s from a completely different poll. Over half the people think Bush doesn’t care. Less than a third approve of Bush on the Iraq war, while half of Americans think he’s blowing the war on terror.

An pollster and reader of NRO tells NRO’s Kathryn Jean Lopez:

Please check out page 18 of the pdf file that tallies up the poll. This page includes the frequency data.

Note the respective numbers of Republicans and Democrats:

GOPers: 272 (weighted up to 289)
DEMs: 409 (weighted down to 381)
INDs: 337 (weighted up to 348)

This is NOT representative of the electorate.

They also used a split-sample methodology, which is legit (we’ve used it ourselves), but which also INCREASES the margin of error for those questions (a fact that is usually glossed over).
You’ll also note that the story (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/27/opinion/polls/main1350874.shtml) and the pdf both reference “Americans.” Not likely voters.

So the poll offers nothing on the next election. It seems that they contacted a bunch of people who claimed to be Democrats and asked them, essentially, whether or not the President has cooties.

It’s a worthless poll with a fake result, but it fills space and gives Schieffer something to talk about.