Thursday, October 04, 2007

How low can they go?

In late August, I wrote that Michelle Bachelet’s numbers were holding steady and that “Despite the intense criticism, she clearly has a base of support that remains solid.” I heard similar sentiments from other Chileanists at LASA, that Bachelet had a core constituency that would continue to support her and the numbers suggested it was around 40%.

Now we’re all trying to figure out exactly why that was wrong. The latest Angus Reid poll has her at 35.3% approval for September, down from 41.5% in August. Through the course of the Chilean winter she’s been in freefall, while protests, strikes and Transantiago continue to plague her. Inflation is also rising and the weak dollar threatens Chilean exports to the U.S. so in general she hasn't had much good news.

So the new question is how low can those approval numbers go? It is simply mind blowing, but bears repeating, that she is creeping awfully close to George W. Bush numbers.

2 comments:

Anonymous,  7:47 PM  

Well you know her style. Am I right to think she lacks charisma?
I mean you have other Latin American countries doing worse than Chile but their leaders connect better with their people.

Fer

Mike 11:56 PM  

I'd have to say it's the exact opposite. She has charisma, but seems to lack the traditional political organization to accomplish anything. She's great when it comes to the people and the ideas, but not so good at the implementation phase.

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