PRESIDENT BUSH significantly misread the American public’s mood over the plight of Terri Schiavo.

Opinion polls say that seven out of ten Americans thought Mr Bush and Congress were wrong to get involved in what they regarded as an issue for the state authorities in Florida.

Sixty-five per cent said that Mr Bush and the mostly Republican lawmakers concerned had put politics before principle when, with theatrical flourish, they passed an emergency law crafted to keep Ms Schiavo alive. A similar figure said that they would consider punishing those concerned by voting against them in next year’s mid-term congressional elections.

Overall, 59 per cent supported the removal of Ms Schiavo’s feeding tube against 35 per cent who disagreed.

The poll for Time magazine suggested that Mr Bush was seriously out of step with his core constituency of religious conservatives, a rare occurrence for a President whose instinct for his political base helped win him decisive re-election last November. A clear majority of Republican voters — 53 per cent against 43 per cent — supported the courts’ decisions to remove Ms Schiavo’s feeding tube. An even wider majority of evangelical Christians — 53/41 — did the same. Democrats did by 65/29. The findings come as Mr Bush’s standing at home has fallen. A Gallup poll this week put his approval rating at 45 per cent, a record low for Mr Bush, down from 52 per cent in a month. Much of the fall is explained by his focus on state pension reform, his second term domestic priority which voters have taken against.

Record high petrol prices are also taking their toll.

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