While protesters in Britain set out to show how unpopular President Bush is abroad, Americans back home are also viewing their president with less favour these days, according to the latest opinion poll.
Mr Bush's overall job approval rating has fallen 21 points to 50 per cent since April, equalling the lowest point measured since he took office in January 2001.
This largely reflects a growing public concern over mounting US deaths in Iraq and the slowness of the economic recovery to make an impact on people's lives.
The trends which are evident in the USA Today/CNN/Gallup opinion poll indicate a tight presidential election in November next year.
Fifty per cent of voters said they approved of the job Mr Bush was doing and 47 per cent disapproved, while 50 per cent of respondents said they did not feel Mr Bush was in touch with their needs.
Americans still like their president personally, with 68 per cent approving of him as a leader and 59 per cent judging him to be honest and trustworthy.
Voters are however sharply divided over whether to give Mr Bush a second term in office. Only 22 per cent said they were certain to vote for him in 2004, while 33 per scent said they were certain to vote against him, with the rest undecided.
With his poll ratings on the slide, questions have been asked about Mr Bush going to London on a visit which could be dominated by scenes of protest.
The reason for the visit, according to national security adviser Ms Condoleezza Rice in a pre-trip briefing for reporters, was to affirm the broad and historic alliance between the US and Britain.
The visit was initially planned as a triumphal celebration of the transatlantic alliance, a special relationship which held firm over Iraq.
Analysts say to cancel it now would be a snub to Queen Elizabeth and would give rise to speculation about a rift between Mr Bush and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair.
The visit gives Mr Bush a European platform to project the war in Iraq as part of a worldwide struggle against terrorism and in this respect, the recent terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia and Turkey will help him to make the case.
At home, the Vice President, Mr Dick Cheney, continues to press this argument by making a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, despite the failure of intelligence agencies to prove any connection.
Mr Cheney told a fund-raising event in New York on Monday that Saddam "gave support to terrorists and "developed a relationship with al-Qaeda".
Reflecting the narrowing in the polls, Mr Cheney called on Republicans to remember the 2000 election "when the outcome in terms of who was President of the United States was decided by a handful of votes in Florida".
Meanwhile, the Democratic candidates for president continued to spar among themselves in the run-up to the first state contests in January.
At a joint event for an over- 50s organisation in New Hampshire, yesterday front-runner Mr Howard Dean, a medical doctor, held up a stethoscope and promised not to cut benefits for the elderly.
"I'm the only one up here who has taken care of patients," he said.
"Holding up a stethoscope and saying you have no intention of cutting people doesn't mean you haven't," retorted his rival Senator John Kerry, referring to Mr Dean's history as governor of Vermont.
When Congressman Mr Dick Gephardt said he was confident his health care plan would pass because he expected Democrats to take back control of Congress if he was elected, Mr Dean replied: "You had four terms to bring in a Democratic majority and you didn't do it.
"We have got to bring new people into this process."