It’s all relative now.

Nebraska still ranks as one of President Bush’s most supportive states.

Up there on a familiar list: Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, North Dakota, Nebraska, several Deep South states.

But even in Nebraska, where Bush swept to two landslide victories while narrowly winning nationally in 2000 and 2004, the president’s approval rating dipped below the 50 percent mark a few months ago.

It was down to 46 percent in a SurveyUSA poll of 600 Nebraskans in November. There hasn’t been a public measurement — or much good news for the president — since.

Stunningly, even 25 percent of Nebraska Republicans expressed disapproval in that survey four months ago.

A month after that, 29 percent of Republicans registered disapproval of the president’s job performance in a poll of 430 Nebraska GOP voters by Dresner, Wickers and Associates, a San Francisco political strategy firm that serves Republican clients.

In the heart of Bush country, confidence was leaking.

No flood or avalanche, just slip-sliding away.

But it IS all relative. 

Sixty-eight percent of Nebraska Republicans expressed their continued approval of the president’s job performance in the December survey.  That was higher than the

59 percent favorable rating for Sen. Chuck Hagel or the 62 percent for Attorney General Jon Bruning.

If an anecdotal e-mail survey of participants in the Journal Star’s Readers Network — a volunteer pool of several hundred readers — and a scattering of person-on-the-street surveys in five Nebraska communities accurately reflect public opinion, the true believers aren’t going away.

“I voted for him both times, and I still have confidence in him,” James Walker of Kearney says. 

“I like the tenacity. He’s a bulldog. He’s blamed for a lot that’s not his fault.”

Says Jason Snyder of Omaha: “I truly believe that the decisions he makes are in the best interest of our country.”

“I find it deeply disturbing how a political party has no remorse for actively attempting to diminish support for a commander-in-chief during wartime,” Snyder says.

“I’m thankful for his leadership and desire to accomplish right things,” says Leroy Brennfoerder of Lincoln.

“The president, like most of us, has made his mistakes and has made some bad decisions, but on the war on terror I stand strongly behind him and support him 100 percent.”

Bush loyalists and detractors have been skirmishing for months in letters to the editor published in the Journal Star and the Omaha World-Herald.  

At the center of much of the mailbag debate has been Hagel’s opposition to the president’s Iraq war policies, including the latest addition of 21,500 U.S. combat troops.

Virtually every story about Hagel on JournalStar.com triggers a flurry of critical comments about the senator based on his differences with Bush over Iraq.

“Hagel’s making a fool of himself, if you ask me,” says Ray Brown of Broken Bow, a World War II veteran who says he supports Bush more than ever.

Criticizing Hagel in a recent letter to the editor, Sandra Heinz of York made the case for loyalty to Bush.

“I am a staunch conservative Republican, a Bush supporter,” she writes. “I excuse his mistakes and pray daily that he will continue to lead this country in winning the war — whatever it takes.”

No one doubts it’s the war that is sapping the president’s strength.

But many Bush supporters who responded to the Journal Star reader survey suggest a biased  news media is responsible for much of the damage.

“I think the media, spotlighting mostly bad or ‘sensational’ negative events in Iraq, has a lot to do with the decline of support for the president,” Peter Ringsmuth of Lincoln says.

Gene Gausman of Milford admires Bush for “having guts enough to stick to his convictions” in the face of partisan and media criticism.

“It’s a sad day when Democrats and the liberal media hate a president to a degree that they’re willing to bring the United States to its knees rather than admit the president might be right about something,” Gausman says.

And from Andy Ringsmuth of Lincoln: “I can’t recall the last time I read or saw any hint of positive news come out of Iraq as presented by the major media outlets (television and print), including the Journal Star.”

“The national press is extremely liberal and very anti-Bush,” Brennfoerder says. “Many in the press do not want to see America win the war.”

Don Denesia of Broken Bow, a World War II veteran, says he’s irritated by coverage of the war.

“What the hell would flunkies off the street know about how to run the country or the military?” he asks.

Ellen Doughty of Columbus voted for Bush in 2000, but not in 2004.

“It’s basically because of the war,” she says. “I’ll give him a score of 4 on a scale of 10. He hasn’t done a good job at all.”

Scott Pfeiffer of West Point, who  voted for Bush both times, now says: “I think he is doing a terrible job.”

In any historical ranking of presidents, Pfeiffer says, Bush will end up “towards the bottom.”

Harlan Chamberlain of Lincoln is a Democrat who voted twice for Bush, but he says his “confidence in the president has diminished because of the war.”

Now, Chamberlain says, he has mixed feelings about how to disengage the United States from combat in Iraq.

“Part of me says, ‘Let’s finish it; part of me says let’s bring our people home.’”

Describing herself as a conservative Democrat, Marilyn Mercier of Lincoln says she voted for President Bush both times, and she still doesn’t see a good Democratic alternative.

“It doesn’t seem likely that I will be able to vote for a candidate from my party in the foreseeable future,” she says, “but I haven’t given up hope.”

Faith White of Lincoln isn’t budging in her support.

“My confidence (in Bush) remains strong,” she says.  “But I wish he didn’t have to pander to the liberals.”

Some Nebraskans believe citizens owe a president their support.

“My confidence has probably diminished, but I also know that the country voted him in, so as the leader of our country we need to support him,” Jennie Hodgen says.

“I support the position of president, whoever holds the office,” says Kay Coffey of Lincoln.

“For me, the bottom line is: Let the president do the job he has been elected to do, and respect him for facing and making the tough decisions, right or wrong.”

Although the Journal Star reader survey was targeted at soliciting reaction from those who voted for Bush, it also attracted a flurry of responses from those who didn’t.

“The fact that I live in a state which so strongly supported him has been a huge embarrassment,” says Leigh Palmer of Lincoln.

“This state has a disturbing pattern of voting against its own interests,” Scott Anderson of Lincoln says.

“It’s tragic that it took so long for folks to identify his inadequacy/duplicity and that so much damage globally and individually has had to occur because of their support of him,” says Judy Gibson of Lincoln.

“From my perspective, I wonder how he could have any supporters left,” Bob Haller of Lincoln says.

At the time of last November’s SurveyUSA poll measuring 46 percent approval in Nebraska for Bush’s job performance, national approval had plunged to 33 percent in the Gallup Poll.  

Even at 52 percent disapproval, Nebraska ranked sixth among the states in support for Bush in SurveyUSA’s mid-November poll.

In the following weeks, Bush remained stuck in the 30s in the Gallup national survey. The March Gallup figure was 33 percent.

Zogby International measured the president’s job approval at 35 percent last week. Twenty-six percent of those polled approved of his handling of the war in Iraq.

Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com. Journal Star reporter Joe Duggan, the Columbus Telegram and the Sioux City Journal contributed to this story.