SurveyUSA released a new poll today that echoes the findings of yesterday's Rasmussen Reports poll: Americans are increasingly losing faith in the President's response to Hurricane Katrina.

3 polling days after George W. Bush's prime-time speech to the nation from Jackson Square in New Orleans, a "can't win" dynamic is unfolding for the President, according to exclusive SurveyUSA data gathered Friday 9/16, Saturday 9/17 and Sunday 9/18. The number of Americans who now approve of the President's response to Hurricane Katrina is down: 40% today compared to 42% before he announced the Gulf Opportunity Zone. The number of Americans who disapprove of the President's response to Katrina is up: 56% today compared to 52% before the speech. Bush went from "Minus 10" on his Response to Katrina before the speech to "Minus 16" today. One way to make sense of these numbers is to look at the number of Americans who today say the Federal Government is doing "too much" for Katrina victims. That's up to 16% today, more than triple what the number has been on 7 of the 19 days that SurveyUSA has conducted daily tracking since the storm. The more cash President Bush throws on the fire, as compensation for what some see as an inadequate initial response, the more it antagonizes his core supporters. [emphasis added]

Small government conservatives like Mike Pence are clearly unhappy with President Bush's big government response to Hurricane Katrina. And because the President does not appear to be picking up much new support in the middle or on the left on account of his belated but massive plans to rebuild the Gulf Coast, the discontent brewing on the far right of the GOP could lead to a schism that ultimately undercuts his second term.