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CNN Live At Daybreak
President Bush Will be Heading to Michigan Today
Aired January 29, 2003 - 06:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: As we told you earlier, President Bush will be heading to Michigan today to gauge the public response to his State of the Union address last night.
We sent our Gary Tuchman out live in Atlanta already this morning for our own public reaction to the speech -- good morning.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning to you.
And we've come to you from the Krispy Kreme donut shop in midtown Manhattan. There are two generalizations you can make about people who come here this early in the morning. Number one, they like to start their day in a very delicious way. And number two, they probably went to bed early to get here so early.
But that, alas, would not necessarily be true because some of the people we've seen here today stayed up late, past 10 o'clock Eastern time, to watch the State of the Union address. And those are the people we're going to talk to today.
One of the people here is Willie. He drives a bus here in Atlanta. Just got some donuts.
Willie, you saw the speech. What was your impressions of President Bush's address?
WILLIE: Well, I was impressed with some parts of it and some parts of it I didn't agree with. I really feel that we should give the inspectors a little bit more time to inspect, to see if there's something there. And I also feel that, you know, we should be a little bit more patient.
TUCHMAN: Well, before the speech, did you favor action against Iraq?
WILLIE: If there's something there I feel that, you know, the country needs to be protected. I do feel that we have to protect the country. But I...
TUCHMAN: OK, but let me ask you this. During the speech did you change your mind in either direction?
WILLIE: No, I did not. I didn't see anything there that made me change my mind in this speech.
TUCHMAN: Willie, thanks for talking with us.
Enjoy the donuts.
What do you got there, by the way? Let's see.
WILLIE: Oh, a dozen donuts.
TUCHMAN: Oh, they look delicious.
WILLIE: Yes, that's right.
TUCHMAN: Are they all for you?
WILLIE: No. No, I can't eat all that.
TUCHMAN: OK.
We have an employee here at Krispy Kreme who also saw the speech last night. This is Bill.
Bill, I like the hat you have on.
BILL: Oh, thank you very much.
TUCHMAN: OK. Very fashionable.
BILL: Yes, it is.
TUCHMAN: What did you think of the speech last night?
BILL: I thought it was a good speech. It brought in patriotism. I got that feeling again that we had back when Reagan was president and Bush was president during the war. It brought a good feeling.
TUCHMAN: Bill, thanks for talking with us.
BILL: All right.
TUCHMAN: So you've now heard food for thought from a Krispy Kreme donut shop -- Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: Oh, that was a good one, Gary.
Hey, we appreciate it.
You know, we waste no time here at CNN. We already have numbers in from a poll taken right after the president's State of the Union.
Gallup poll Editor-In-Chief Frank Newport joins us now from Princeton, New Jersey with the results.
Good morning, Frank.
FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP POLL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Good morning, Carol.
Indeed, 440 speech watchers scientifically selected last night. We interviewed them. I would say all in all the speech did OK as far as the public's concerned. And it was the foreign policy part that really had an impact, not the domestic part.
Here's an interesting comparison, how would you rate the speech? These are speech watchers. And on the right hand side, that was last night. Fifty percent of speech watchers gave it a very positive rating. Most of the rest somewhat positive. But you can see nowhere near as positive as Bush's speech was last year. Of course, that was after 9/11, much more like Clinton's speech back in January of 1998, to put it in some context.
Now, before the speech, all of our polling showed that it was the economy that was on voters' minds. But look at this, after the speech we said what part of Bush's speech really was important to you, and it was Iraq and terrorism, 56 percent. So out of the speech last night the watchers said it was the foreign policy, the last half of the speech, that really affected them. And that's what moved the numbers.
Before the speech, we had asked people has Bush made a convincing case about the need for military action in Iraq. That was here. And these are the pre-speech numbers on the left hand side, just 47 percent said yes. Look what happened. When we called those speech watchers back last night, it had jumped 20 points. Two thirds said yes, he had made a convincing case.
So clearly he moved the numbers there in the short-term. We'll see what happens in the long-term.
But, Carol, when we talk about economic plan, it just laid an egg as far as our polling is concerned. Just like his father back in '92, not a very good comparison. Look at on the right hand side. Only 28 percent said Bush made them more confident in his ability to handle the economy. That's actually a little lower than his father in '92, which was widely considered to be not an effective speech.
So I don't think Bush did much on the economy last night, but he clearly made an impact as far as Iraq is concerned.
Carol?
COSTELLO: It's just getting more and more like deja vu all over again, isn't it?
NEWPORT: Yes.
COSTELLO: Frank Newport, many thanks to you.
NEWPORT: You bet.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 29, 2003 - 06:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: As we told you earlier, President Bush will be heading to Michigan today to gauge the public response to his State of the Union address last night.
We sent our Gary Tuchman out live in Atlanta already this morning for our own public reaction to the speech -- good morning.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning to you.
And we've come to you from the Krispy Kreme donut shop in midtown Manhattan. There are two generalizations you can make about people who come here this early in the morning. Number one, they like to start their day in a very delicious way. And number two, they probably went to bed early to get here so early.
But that, alas, would not necessarily be true because some of the people we've seen here today stayed up late, past 10 o'clock Eastern time, to watch the State of the Union address. And those are the people we're going to talk to today.
One of the people here is Willie. He drives a bus here in Atlanta. Just got some donuts.
Willie, you saw the speech. What was your impressions of President Bush's address?
WILLIE: Well, I was impressed with some parts of it and some parts of it I didn't agree with. I really feel that we should give the inspectors a little bit more time to inspect, to see if there's something there. And I also feel that, you know, we should be a little bit more patient.
TUCHMAN: Well, before the speech, did you favor action against Iraq?
WILLIE: If there's something there I feel that, you know, the country needs to be protected. I do feel that we have to protect the country. But I...
TUCHMAN: OK, but let me ask you this. During the speech did you change your mind in either direction?
WILLIE: No, I did not. I didn't see anything there that made me change my mind in this speech.
TUCHMAN: Willie, thanks for talking with us.
Enjoy the donuts.
What do you got there, by the way? Let's see.
WILLIE: Oh, a dozen donuts.
TUCHMAN: Oh, they look delicious.
WILLIE: Yes, that's right.
TUCHMAN: Are they all for you?
WILLIE: No. No, I can't eat all that.
TUCHMAN: OK.
We have an employee here at Krispy Kreme who also saw the speech last night. This is Bill.
Bill, I like the hat you have on.
BILL: Oh, thank you very much.
TUCHMAN: OK. Very fashionable.
BILL: Yes, it is.
TUCHMAN: What did you think of the speech last night?
BILL: I thought it was a good speech. It brought in patriotism. I got that feeling again that we had back when Reagan was president and Bush was president during the war. It brought a good feeling.
TUCHMAN: Bill, thanks for talking with us.
BILL: All right.
TUCHMAN: So you've now heard food for thought from a Krispy Kreme donut shop -- Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: Oh, that was a good one, Gary.
Hey, we appreciate it.
You know, we waste no time here at CNN. We already have numbers in from a poll taken right after the president's State of the Union.
Gallup poll Editor-In-Chief Frank Newport joins us now from Princeton, New Jersey with the results.
Good morning, Frank.
FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP POLL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Good morning, Carol.
Indeed, 440 speech watchers scientifically selected last night. We interviewed them. I would say all in all the speech did OK as far as the public's concerned. And it was the foreign policy part that really had an impact, not the domestic part.
Here's an interesting comparison, how would you rate the speech? These are speech watchers. And on the right hand side, that was last night. Fifty percent of speech watchers gave it a very positive rating. Most of the rest somewhat positive. But you can see nowhere near as positive as Bush's speech was last year. Of course, that was after 9/11, much more like Clinton's speech back in January of 1998, to put it in some context.
Now, before the speech, all of our polling showed that it was the economy that was on voters' minds. But look at this, after the speech we said what part of Bush's speech really was important to you, and it was Iraq and terrorism, 56 percent. So out of the speech last night the watchers said it was the foreign policy, the last half of the speech, that really affected them. And that's what moved the numbers.
Before the speech, we had asked people has Bush made a convincing case about the need for military action in Iraq. That was here. And these are the pre-speech numbers on the left hand side, just 47 percent said yes. Look what happened. When we called those speech watchers back last night, it had jumped 20 points. Two thirds said yes, he had made a convincing case.
So clearly he moved the numbers there in the short-term. We'll see what happens in the long-term.
But, Carol, when we talk about economic plan, it just laid an egg as far as our polling is concerned. Just like his father back in '92, not a very good comparison. Look at on the right hand side. Only 28 percent said Bush made them more confident in his ability to handle the economy. That's actually a little lower than his father in '92, which was widely considered to be not an effective speech.
So I don't think Bush did much on the economy last night, but he clearly made an impact as far as Iraq is concerned.
Carol?
COSTELLO: It's just getting more and more like deja vu all over again, isn't it?
NEWPORT: Yes.
COSTELLO: Frank Newport, many thanks to you.
NEWPORT: You bet.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
