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Poll: Americans May Fear Sniper More Than Terrorism

Aired October 15, 2002 - 14:46   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 LIN, CNN ANCHOR: From time to time, we like to tap into the American voice and Gallup Poll Editor-in-chief Frank Newport does a lot of listening for us.
Frank, good to see you.

FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP POLL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Good day to you, Carol.

LIN: Obviously, the big story right now is the sniper. Do you have a sense as to how this story and the sniper killings are affecting Americans?

NEWPORT: Well, it's early yet. In fact, we're polling on that right now. I was able to find "Newsweek" release a poll over the weekend and they managed to put a question on how worried are you about sniper violence? And that's the first indication we have of how the general public is reacting, Carol, not just the people in the D.C. area and it's pretty high.

Forty-seven percent of Americans said they were worried in general, very or somewhat, about sniper violence. By comparison, that's actually a little higher than the percent worried about terrorism, so our first indications are that if this continues, if the sniper/snipers aren't apprehended, it could really have an effect on psyches across the country, Carol.

LIN: Interesting. And of course a lot of people are equating what's happening around the Washington D.C. area to a form of terrorism, which gets us to the debate over whether the United States is going to make a preemptive strike against Iraq.

Congress has voted on a resolution supporting the president in this matter, but do you get a sense whether Americans are in a hurry? Do they feel that this is an urgent matter to be taken care of?

NEWPORT: Well, that's the next question. We're passed the Congress hurdle so now it's very, very apropos to say to the public, Want to move quickly or not? Our data, I think, when I analyzed it, Carol, saying the public is no real hurry. There's no groundswell I sense out there of Americans saying, Take action immediately. For example, in our last poll, 51 percent said we have not -- that is, the United States -- has not done everything possible in terms of diplomatic solutions. So you've got half saying there's more to be doing diplomatically.

In that "Newsweek" poll said, Should America strike quickly, move within the next month or wait for allied support? And this is symptomatic of other polling, you can see it's kind of split, but the plurality, at any rate, says, Wait for more allied support, wait for U.N. support before the United States takes action.

So the American public is not necessarily eager to move extremely quickly in Iraq, Carol.

LIN: Well, Election Day is three weeks away. Is any of this being reflected in the polls?

NEWPORT: Well, the Democrats versus Republican question is dead even. No question about that. The real question is, the Democrats are asking, Is the economy going to be, in the next three weeks, more important than Iraq? Our last poll says they're dead equal, 25 percent, economy's the most important issue, 25 war in Iraq. It depends on how you ask the question, that's my conclusion overall.

Will the Democrats do better, Carol, if the economy is the major shift, if the shift moves away from Iraq, or the sniping and what have you? Not necessarily so. We said, Who could do a better job on the economy? And this is very interesting. The Democrats just have a few point edge over the Republicans, you can see just a little higher.

So I'm not sure that even if people do focus on the economy, Carol, it's really going to be that much benefit to the Democrats. But we'll wait and see.

LIN: Are you focusing on baseball these days? You been watching the playoffs?

NEWPORT: Well, they are in Anaheim and San Francisco.

LIN: You bet.

NEWPORT: Unfortunately, Carol, for big league baseball, it's just not the big event that it used to be.

LIN: Really?

NEWPORT: Yes, you know, baseball used to America's sport. All of our polling at Gallup 30, 40 years ago said it was the dominant sport. But look at this: Now when we say, What's your favorite sport to watch? It's football, the Super Bowl is the bigger event than the World Series. Not that it's not important, Carol, but it's simply not that huge event in the autumn I think that it was 30 years ago.

LIN: Did people give you an indication why? I mean, this is the all-American sport.

NEWPORT: Well, I don't have an exact answer. Football has passing, has movement, has violence. You know, there are a lot of psychological theories about why football...

LIN: And they didn't threaten to go on strike.

NEWPORT: Well, that's another point that may have hurt baseball. I don't know why, but it was, you know, 10 or 30 years ago that baseball slipped behind football and football's been reigning as the No. 1 sport ever since, Carol.

LIN: Interesting. All right, thank you very much, Frank Newport, from Princeton, New Jersey.

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 October 15, 2002 - 14:46   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: From time to time, we like to tap into the American voice and Gallup Poll Editor-in-chief Frank Newport does a lot of listening for us.
Frank, good to see you.

FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP POLL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Good day to you, Carol.

LIN: Obviously, the big story right now is the sniper. Do you have a sense as to how this story and the sniper killings are affecting Americans?

NEWPORT: Well, it's early yet. In fact, we're polling on that right now. I was able to find "Newsweek" release a poll over the weekend and they managed to put a question on how worried are you about sniper violence? And that's the first indication we have of how the general public is reacting, Carol, not just the people in the D.C. area and it's pretty high.

Forty-seven percent of Americans said they were worried in general, very or somewhat, about sniper violence. By comparison, that's actually a little higher than the percent worried about terrorism, so our first indications are that if this continues, if the sniper/snipers aren't apprehended, it could really have an effect on psyches across the country, Carol.

LIN: Interesting. And of course a lot of people are equating what's happening around the Washington D.C. area to a form of terrorism, which gets us to the debate over whether the United States is going to make a preemptive strike against Iraq.

Congress has voted on a resolution supporting the president in this matter, but do you get a sense whether Americans are in a hurry? Do they feel that this is an urgent matter to be taken care of?

NEWPORT: Well, that's the next question. We're passed the Congress hurdle so now it's very, very apropos to say to the public, Want to move quickly or not? Our data, I think, when I analyzed it, Carol, saying the public is no real hurry. There's no groundswell I sense out there of Americans saying, Take action immediately. For example, in our last poll, 51 percent said we have not -- that is, the United States -- has not done everything possible in terms of diplomatic solutions. So you've got half saying there's more to be doing diplomatically.

In that "Newsweek" poll said, Should America strike quickly, move within the next month or wait for allied support? And this is symptomatic of other polling, you can see it's kind of split, but the plurality, at any rate, says, Wait for more allied support, wait for U.N. support before the United States takes action.

So the American public is not necessarily eager to move extremely quickly in Iraq, Carol.

LIN: Well, Election Day is three weeks away. Is any of this being reflected in the polls?

NEWPORT: Well, the Democrats versus Republican question is dead even. No question about that. The real question is, the Democrats are asking, Is the economy going to be, in the next three weeks, more important than Iraq? Our last poll says they're dead equal, 25 percent, economy's the most important issue, 25 war in Iraq. It depends on how you ask the question, that's my conclusion overall.

Will the Democrats do better, Carol, if the economy is the major shift, if the shift moves away from Iraq, or the sniping and what have you? Not necessarily so. We said, Who could do a better job on the economy? And this is very interesting. The Democrats just have a few point edge over the Republicans, you can see just a little higher.

So I'm not sure that even if people do focus on the economy, Carol, it's really going to be that much benefit to the Democrats. But we'll wait and see.

LIN: Are you focusing on baseball these days? You been watching the playoffs?

NEWPORT: Well, they are in Anaheim and San Francisco.

LIN: You bet.

NEWPORT: Unfortunately, Carol, for big league baseball, it's just not the big event that it used to be.

LIN: Really?

NEWPORT: Yes, you know, baseball used to America's sport. All of our polling at Gallup 30, 40 years ago said it was the dominant sport. But look at this: Now when we say, What's your favorite sport to watch? It's football, the Super Bowl is the bigger event than the World Series. Not that it's not important, Carol, but it's simply not that huge event in the autumn I think that it was 30 years ago.

LIN: Did people give you an indication why? I mean, this is the all-American sport.

NEWPORT: Well, I don't have an exact answer. Football has passing, has movement, has violence. You know, there are a lot of psychological theories about why football...

LIN: And they didn't threaten to go on strike.

NEWPORT: Well, that's another point that may have hurt baseball. I don't know why, but it was, you know, 10 or 30 years ago that baseball slipped behind football and football's been reigning as the No. 1 sport ever since, Carol.

LIN: Interesting. All right, thank you very much, Frank Newport, from Princeton, New Jersey.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com