Has Bush Weathered the Storm?

The latest poll data suggest that President Bush’s apparent free fall may finally have ended. The most recent Gallup poll, taken from Oct. 6 through 8, has him at 55% approval, vs. 42% disapproval, up five points since mid-September, although still down from August. The most recent Newsweek poll, conducted Oct. 9 and 10, shows 51% approval and 42% disapproval, essentially unchanged over the last month.
I assume that by now just about everyone has absorbed the facts that people are still getting killed in Iraq, and we haven’t yet found significant quantities of WMDs. So the President’s stabilized ratings are a good sign. It seems likely that the next movement will be positive, as word spreads about the progress being made in Iraq and as ongoing signs of the economy’s strengthening get more attention.
UPDATE: A new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, just released today, shows a bit of additional improvement with a 56%-40% approval spread.