The good news for Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue in a recent poll for Morris News Service was that just over half of voters approve of his performance this past legislative session.
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The bad news for the governor is that just over half of voters approve of his performance this past legislative session.
Yes, he got half - at 53 percent - but that's pretty modest. A score of 53 in school doesn't move you on to the next grade level.
The worse news is, even that tepid support cools when voters are asked whether they would re-elect him: Only 43 percent say they would.
Just months into his first term, Gov. Perdue is fighting for a positive public image - or any image at all: "I don't know anything about the governor," said one voter.
Up to this point, his public image battle has been fought on several fronts.
On one front, he was no doubt the beneficiary of a great number of anti-Roy Barnes votes in the 2002 election. When you're simply "not the other guy," your support is bound to be soft.
On another front, Perdue had to jump into a huge budget deficit and a contentious legislative session right after winning election. It's like skipping the honeymoon and going right to the fights with the in-laws.
On a third front, Perdue is fighting to establish a foothold as the first Georgia Republican governor since Reconstruction. He has had to deal with more than a little restructuring of state government to fit the new two-party reality - and he had to set up shop with a newly GOP Senate and a recalcitrant Democrat-led House.
And, of course, when it became clear he couldn't cut his way out of the budget thicket, he had the dubious distinction of proposing tax increases.
But the governor's most crippling wound was undoubtedly self-inflicted: his campaign promise to hold a vote on the old Rebel Cross-dominated 1956 state flag.
It didn't get done: The General Assembly ultimately chose a totally new flag design and scheduled a 2004 voter referendum on it. But the debate over the racially charged 1956 flag did no one any good, least of all the new governor. Be careful what you wish for in a campaign.
What a shame, too, because Sonny Perdue is as personable and likable as a guy can get. Moreover, he and the state's first lady aim to work hard - as citizens and role models - to improve the lot of children in Georgia.
The governor needs to open up a new front in the battle for his image: He needs to get on the front lines with the public. He has to give people a chance to get to know him.
If there is any good news at all in that poll, it's that he's got three years to get those poll numbers up - and fill up the rest of that half-empty glass.
