On the new Gallup poll showing Bush at 42 percent: Nearly all the improvement seems to have come in the number of people who approve the president’s handling of terrorism. Bush’s approval on that issue is 55 percent in the new poll, up from 47 percent in July. Bush’s approval numbers on several other issues — foreign affairs, at 39 percent; the economy, at 39 percent; Iraq, at 36 percent; and energy policy, at 30 percent — are basically unchanged. The terrorism number seems a direct response to the London arrests, which is why so many of Bush’s critics have been trying to downplay the plot. But that critique seems to be falling apart .