Post-Election Push

The latest from the Political Grapevine:

Post-Election Push

A new Fox News Opinion Dynamics poll shows President Bush with a post-election bounce. His job approval rating going from 47 percent, two and a half weeks ago, to 53 percent now.

The poll also shows Republicans (search) leading Democrats in the race to be the next president four years from now. In hypothetical match-ups, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani beats John Kerry 49 to 41 percent. He beats New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton 49 to 38 percent. And Arizona Republican John McCain beats the same Democrats by even larger margins.

Money Matters

Three of John Kerry’s campaign aides say they are disappointed that Kerry still has $15 million in his primary campaign bank account and DNC members, according to one, are angered by the extra money. They are trying to figure out why Kerry didn’t use the money during primary season to strengthen his campaign, or give it to other Democratic candidates throughout the nation.

Democratic adviser Donna Brazile (search) said Kerry will have to give up some of that campaign money for 2005 and beyond insisting, "The party will demand it." And now Kerry staffers are saying that is exactly what he will do, give it up.

Floridians Fared Better?

Those psychologists in south Florida have treated 50 or so Kerry supporters afflicted with something called Post-Election Selection Trauma (search). A psychiatrist in New York City insists New Yorkers have taken President Bush’s victory far worse; some coming to her in near catatonic states.

Hadassah Brooks Morgan says, "In my whole 40 years of practice here, I have never heard patients as bereft by a result as this. There was a feeling in session after session of the insult to one’s tribe, a loss of purpose and direction. For men, their sports team, the Yankees, being beat at the same time, made them feel as if New York is no longer a command center, no longer the winning city they identify with."

Academic Analysis

And a new survey shows college professors in the humanities and social sciences are 10 times more likely to vote Democratic than Republican. In the survey, conducted by a professor at Santa Clara University (search), more than 80 percent of professors say they’ve tended to vote Democratic in the past decade. As you can see, only about eight percent say they’ve tended to vote Republican. What’s more, the survey shows that professors of anthropology and sociology are the most likely to vote Democrat (search), while professors of economic and political science are the least likely.

— FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this report