George W. Bush Gets Post-Osama Bounce?

I was a bit surprised this morning to see an AP poll showing the President at a 60 percent approval rating, and the number of Americans saying he should be reelected above 50 percent. Numerous other polls have shown a small post-Osama bounce, but they've also shown his approval on the economy being exceptionally weak.

Well, if you suspect there is something off about this poll -- you're right. Jim Geraghty looked at the internals and finds it's pretty skewed:

And on the economy, 52 percent approve of the way Obama’s handling it, and only 47 percent disapprove! He’s up 54-56 on approval of how he’s handling health care! On unemployment, 52 percent approval, 47 percent disapproval! 57 percent approval on handling Libya! Even on the deficit, he’s at 47 percent approval, 52 percent disapproval!

It is of adults, which isn’t surprising; as I mentioned yesterday, you don’t have to be a registered or likely voter to have an opinion on the president.

But then you get to the party ID: 46 percent identify as Democrat or leaning Democrat, 29 percent identify as Republican or leaning Republican, 4 percent identify as purely independent leaning towards neither party, and 20 percent answered, “I don’t know.”

So the poll isn't terribly reliable regarding Obama's approval ratings. Now Geraghty picks up on one other very interesting nugget buried in the poll -- George W. Bush's approval rating in the poll is at 50 percent, even among a polling sample that favors Democrats by 17 points.

I'm not sure what that means exactly, but if Obama's bounce is related to killing bin Laden, Bush's relative popularity suggests it's Obama's continuation of Bush's foreign policy that's popular -- not the foreign policy Obama campaigned on.