How low will it go?

A Westhill Partners/Hotline poll shows that 59% of regis. voters think Pres. Bush has done a fair/poor job in the first 100 days of his 2nd term. 54% said given Bush's position on Social Security, they would be "unlikely" to vote for him now.

Link.

The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal shows cause for concern for the President as well.

The poll, conducted by Hart/McInturff, shows that only 34 percent of those polled believe that the country is headed in the right direction, compared with 51 percent who say it’s headed in the wrong direction. That’s a significant drop from the last survey in February, when 42 percent said the nation was on the right track.

[...]

On Social Security, the poll shows that support for the president’s plan to partly privatize the government program has dropped, even though the Bush administration has spent the last few months campaigning aggressively for it. Fifty-five percent believe that it’s a bad idea to allow workers to invest their Social Security contributions in the stock market, while 35 percent think it’s a good idea. That’s a drop from the February survey, which found that 51 percent opposed Bush’s plan versus 40 percent who supported it. “Opinions are hardening, and they are hardening in a way that makes Bush’s job more difficult,” McInturff said. “It reflects the caution that you’ve been hearing from members of Congress.”

The wording of this poll is unclear, but if 35% of Americans disapprove of allowing people "to invest their Social Security contributions in the stock market" (a much more acceptable term than privatization), then the President is in real trouble.

[Update 8:36 AM Pacific]: John Harwood has more on the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll:

After winning re-election on the strength of support from nine in 10 Republican voters, the president is seeing significant chunks of that base balk at major initiatives, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows. One-third of Republicans say Democrats in Congress should prevent Mr. Bush and party leaders from "going too far in pushing their agenda," and 41% oppose eliminating filibusters against Mr. Bush's judicial nominees -- the "nuclear option" that Senate Republican leaders are considering.

Where's that national groudswell of support for the nucleaer option? Where's the support even within the Republican base?