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Bush Approval High, But Polls Show Weakness
Aired August 28, 2003 - 14:33 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: President Bush continues to enjoy a high approval rating. Most people would vote for him if an election were held today. And they like what he's doing about Texas.
But according to a new CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll, the president is slipping in some areas.
Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of the Gallup Poll, has some new results to report -- Frank.
FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP POLL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Hello, Kyra.
In fact, the conventional wisdom CW (ph) was that Bush was slipping, problems about Iraq were causing him problems in terms of his job approval. But we're just not seeing it in our latest CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll. Can't get much more steady than this. The last four times we've asked the American public to grade the job performance of their president -- this is the percent who approve. Been very steady right at 60 percent, most recently on the right-hand side there you can see it's 59 percent.
Same thing, this parallels what we're finding when we ask Americans the question we've asked about a lot of military conflicts over the year -- "Was the situation in Iraq worth going to war over?" That's one of tour major measures of American support for the Iraqi effort and you can see it was high back in April, it fell down, but the last three times again very steady, 63, 63, 63 percent of Americans continue to support the concept of the war in Iraq.
Now there are areas where Bush, the president, is weaker than others, Kyra, as you hinted at in your introduction there. Iraq, world affairs, these are job approval ratings, 57, 55 percent not too bad.
Domestically, that's where the problems are right now. Just 45 percent of Americans will say they approve of Bush on the economy. On the right-hand side there, the deficit, the real Achilles heel, just 39 percent approval, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, What about Bush and how he's fairing with his re-election bid?
NEWPORT: Not much change there either. We asked right now kind of a generic question -- "Would you vote for Bush or the Democratic candidate, whoever he or she may end up being?" We tracked this back in July. It came within a 4 percentage point gap. This is among registered voters nationally. But now it's opened back up again to we're back where we started -- 51 would vote for Bush, 39 for the Democratic candidate. Looks very similar to what we found in June. So so far no major change there. Bush would win if the election were held today. But of course, it won't be. We've got a long time before November 2004 -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Yes we do. Frank Newport, thank you.
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 August 28, 2003 - 14:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush continues to enjoy a high approval rating. Most people would vote for him if an election were held today. And they like what he's doing about Texas.
But according to a new CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll, the president is slipping in some areas.
Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of the Gallup Poll, has some new results to report -- Frank.
FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP POLL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Hello, Kyra.
In fact, the conventional wisdom CW (ph) was that Bush was slipping, problems about Iraq were causing him problems in terms of his job approval. But we're just not seeing it in our latest CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll. Can't get much more steady than this. The last four times we've asked the American public to grade the job performance of their president -- this is the percent who approve. Been very steady right at 60 percent, most recently on the right-hand side there you can see it's 59 percent.
Same thing, this parallels what we're finding when we ask Americans the question we've asked about a lot of military conflicts over the year -- "Was the situation in Iraq worth going to war over?" That's one of tour major measures of American support for the Iraqi effort and you can see it was high back in April, it fell down, but the last three times again very steady, 63, 63, 63 percent of Americans continue to support the concept of the war in Iraq.
Now there are areas where Bush, the president, is weaker than others, Kyra, as you hinted at in your introduction there. Iraq, world affairs, these are job approval ratings, 57, 55 percent not too bad.
Domestically, that's where the problems are right now. Just 45 percent of Americans will say they approve of Bush on the economy. On the right-hand side there, the deficit, the real Achilles heel, just 39 percent approval, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, What about Bush and how he's fairing with his re-election bid?
NEWPORT: Not much change there either. We asked right now kind of a generic question -- "Would you vote for Bush or the Democratic candidate, whoever he or she may end up being?" We tracked this back in July. It came within a 4 percentage point gap. This is among registered voters nationally. But now it's opened back up again to we're back where we started -- 51 would vote for Bush, 39 for the Democratic candidate. Looks very similar to what we found in June. So so far no major change there. Bush would win if the election were held today. But of course, it won't be. We've got a long time before November 2004 -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Yes we do. Frank Newport, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
