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Interview with Frank Newport
Aired December 17, 2002 - 14:44 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: There's plenty of controversy in the headlines to fuel conversations around the water cooler. What are Americans taking on? The type of issues from Senator Lott to the fate of Iraq, they're talking about them all.
Gallup Poll Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport joins us now from Princeton, New Jersey to talk about all these issues. Frank, good to see you.
FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GALLUP POLL: Good to see you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, let's start with Trent Lott and how much trouble has he stirred up, according to the American people?
NEWPORT: Well, a lot of trouble. But you know what's interesting, there had been some polling. ABC-Washington Post has a poll that says a slight majority of Americans think that he should leave office.
But what I think is really more important to look at is why this is such a controversy and it's because the Republican Party has a real image problem in the black community in the United States. That's why I think you've seen the Republican Senators in the Bush White House jump into this so quickly and are so worried about what Senator Lott may have done.
Here's an example. This is favorable, unfavorable image of the Republican Party. Look on the left, that's among whites -- 57-34 favorable image. But among blacks this fall -- we combined several surveys -- 59 percent, a negative image of the Republican Party.
And Kyra, there are a lot of other data that show the same thing. Basically, the GOP simply has a negative image with blacks and that's one of the things, that all this damage control is trying to approach that we've been hearing about right here.
Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. How about Al Gore and the buzz that he's not running in 2004?
NEWPORT: Well, I think, quickly, it becomes "Al Who?" as everybody tries to scamper around and say who's going to be the front runner now? Will it be Lieberman or Tom Daschle or Dick Gephardt? I thought I would show you, Kyra, how little it matters who's ahead, at this point, based on history. Let me show you the front runners for the Democratic nomination about 18 months before the Democratic Convention in some previous elections. None of these were the guys who actually got the nomination. Look, 1960, Adlai Stevenson was ahead. John F. Kennedy got the nomination. Go forward from this point to 1972, Muskie was ahead, McGovern got the nomination -- 1976 an obscure governor form Georgia, Jimmy Carter got the nomination, but Ted Kennedy was ahead 18 months before. 1988, Gary Hart, you all know what happened to him, Dukakis got the nomination.
And most recently in 1992, nobody had heard of Bill Clinton. At about this point, it was Cuomo and Jesse Jackson. Of course, Bill Clinton got the nomination. So Lieberman may have a slight lead right now, Kyra, but it really doesn't matter. It's the next year that's going to tell the tale.
Kyra.
PHILLIPS: How about the press sex abuse scandal?
NEWPORT: Well, we've got fascinating new data. We just did some analysis and we're showing that this is really hurting the Catholic church. After one of the first times in history, we have Catholics now telling us they're less likely to attend church regularly than Protestants, and that makes a big, big difference there. Catholic Church attendance had been going down, as reported. Protestant church attendance has been going up at the same time, or at least remain steady. You can see the change. It's really hurting the church where it matters, and that's people in those pews at mass.
PHILLIPS: Did I say priest sex abuse or did I say press sex abuse?
NEWPORT: Well...
PHILLIPS: Did I say priest?
NEWPORT: ... I will assume that you said priest.
PHILLIPS: OK, good.
NEWPORT: You may be on to another scandal that we don't know about. I was just going to say, I just thought about the question. I thought, did I just mix up my words?
OK, let's move along to the next. All right. Iraqi weapons declarations. Of course, you've been talking a lot about this. A lot of people seem confused, not confused. What did you find out?
NEWPORT: Well, I think, precisely, because there may be some confusing, all of our polling shows that the American public wants corroboration, before military action begins. If the Bush administration later this week says that those Iraqi documents weren't up to snuff, weren't right, they had lies in them, the public still says, in our polling you can see here at 66 percent, they want the United States to still go back to the U.N. and rely on those U.N. inspectors, that's on the left-hand side there, before war breaks out. Just 30 percent say go ahead anyhow.
Continually, Kyra, in survey after survey, the American public tells us, get the United Nations involved before any kind of military action is taken.
PHILLIPS: Frank Newport, getting a pulse of all the Americans. Thanks so much. Always a pleasure.
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 December 17, 2002 - 14:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: There's plenty of controversy in the headlines to fuel conversations around the water cooler. What are Americans taking on? The type of issues from Senator Lott to the fate of Iraq, they're talking about them all.
Gallup Poll Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport joins us now from Princeton, New Jersey to talk about all these issues. Frank, good to see you.
FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GALLUP POLL: Good to see you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, let's start with Trent Lott and how much trouble has he stirred up, according to the American people?
NEWPORT: Well, a lot of trouble. But you know what's interesting, there had been some polling. ABC-Washington Post has a poll that says a slight majority of Americans think that he should leave office.
But what I think is really more important to look at is why this is such a controversy and it's because the Republican Party has a real image problem in the black community in the United States. That's why I think you've seen the Republican Senators in the Bush White House jump into this so quickly and are so worried about what Senator Lott may have done.
Here's an example. This is favorable, unfavorable image of the Republican Party. Look on the left, that's among whites -- 57-34 favorable image. But among blacks this fall -- we combined several surveys -- 59 percent, a negative image of the Republican Party.
And Kyra, there are a lot of other data that show the same thing. Basically, the GOP simply has a negative image with blacks and that's one of the things, that all this damage control is trying to approach that we've been hearing about right here.
Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. How about Al Gore and the buzz that he's not running in 2004?
NEWPORT: Well, I think, quickly, it becomes "Al Who?" as everybody tries to scamper around and say who's going to be the front runner now? Will it be Lieberman or Tom Daschle or Dick Gephardt? I thought I would show you, Kyra, how little it matters who's ahead, at this point, based on history. Let me show you the front runners for the Democratic nomination about 18 months before the Democratic Convention in some previous elections. None of these were the guys who actually got the nomination. Look, 1960, Adlai Stevenson was ahead. John F. Kennedy got the nomination. Go forward from this point to 1972, Muskie was ahead, McGovern got the nomination -- 1976 an obscure governor form Georgia, Jimmy Carter got the nomination, but Ted Kennedy was ahead 18 months before. 1988, Gary Hart, you all know what happened to him, Dukakis got the nomination.
And most recently in 1992, nobody had heard of Bill Clinton. At about this point, it was Cuomo and Jesse Jackson. Of course, Bill Clinton got the nomination. So Lieberman may have a slight lead right now, Kyra, but it really doesn't matter. It's the next year that's going to tell the tale.
Kyra.
PHILLIPS: How about the press sex abuse scandal?
NEWPORT: Well, we've got fascinating new data. We just did some analysis and we're showing that this is really hurting the Catholic church. After one of the first times in history, we have Catholics now telling us they're less likely to attend church regularly than Protestants, and that makes a big, big difference there. Catholic Church attendance had been going down, as reported. Protestant church attendance has been going up at the same time, or at least remain steady. You can see the change. It's really hurting the church where it matters, and that's people in those pews at mass.
PHILLIPS: Did I say priest sex abuse or did I say press sex abuse?
NEWPORT: Well...
PHILLIPS: Did I say priest?
NEWPORT: ... I will assume that you said priest.
PHILLIPS: OK, good.
NEWPORT: You may be on to another scandal that we don't know about. I was just going to say, I just thought about the question. I thought, did I just mix up my words?
OK, let's move along to the next. All right. Iraqi weapons declarations. Of course, you've been talking a lot about this. A lot of people seem confused, not confused. What did you find out?
NEWPORT: Well, I think, precisely, because there may be some confusing, all of our polling shows that the American public wants corroboration, before military action begins. If the Bush administration later this week says that those Iraqi documents weren't up to snuff, weren't right, they had lies in them, the public still says, in our polling you can see here at 66 percent, they want the United States to still go back to the U.N. and rely on those U.N. inspectors, that's on the left-hand side there, before war breaks out. Just 30 percent say go ahead anyhow.
Continually, Kyra, in survey after survey, the American public tells us, get the United Nations involved before any kind of military action is taken.
PHILLIPS: Frank Newport, getting a pulse of all the Americans. Thanks so much. Always a pleasure.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
