George Bush’s approval ratings have hit a record low according to a new poll released Monday night, but what does that really mean?

Well, consider this:

Bush’s approval rating has fallen to 36 percent, according to the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll.

By comparison, 38 percent of Americans believe the war in Iraq is going well.

That’s right. In the midst of a dramatic degeneration of the Iraq occupation, with the explosion of sectarian violence following February’s bombing of the al-Askariya mosque in Samarra, with the U.S. casualty numbers pushing rapidly upward — to 2,309 dead and 17,004 wounded as of Monday — and with the military newspaper Stars and Stripes reporting a new poll that shows almost three quarters of U.S. troops serving in Iraq favor complete withdrawal from that country within a year, more Americans think the war is "going well" than think George Bush’s presidency is "going well."

So why is Bush less popular than his war?

Another poll result may answer that question:

When asked if they thought the Bush administration deliberately misled the American public about whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, 51 percent of those surveyed said the president had lied.