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American Morning
Gallup Poll Results on Iraq, North Korea, the Economy and President Bush
Aired December 24, 2002 - 06:53 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.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: What's on your mind this Christmas eve? Iraq, the economy, the Senate gaffes.
Frank Newport joining us now live with more on the America voice. Any change in the public's stance towards military action in Iraq?
FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP POLL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Well, Catherine, not a lot.
What's interesting is when we've asked this question after over a decade, we've had between 50 and 60 percent of Americans who say they are OK with the principle of the concept of military action in Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein from power.
We just updated that question over the weekend, and here's our latest five times we've asked it. We've tracked this, and like the president's staff (ph) approval, now at 53 percent in principle support the idea. Again, there's a lot of sentiment out there, I should reemphasize, that the United Nations be involved before that action takes place.
Also, North Korea captured -- they're making the news now. We looked back and looked at our yearly update on how Americans see countries. These are the ones that Americans have the most unfavorable opinions of. This is Iraq and Iran; huge unfavorables there. The Libya. North Korea, 65 percent an unfavorable opinion for the public. About a quarter, and that's before the most recent issue about nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants, 23 percent (ph) of Americans, a favorable opinion of North Korea. Not quite as negative as these other two countries -- Catherine.
CALLAWAY: How is the president's standing? How is President Bush's standing going with all this?
NEWPORT: Well, it's our last Gallup poll job approval rating of the year for President Bush. Down -- it continually goes down. Remember, his peak was back in October of 2001 of 90, the highest in Gallup poll history. This was 9/11, that huge uptick.
Then going gradually down since then, Catherine. Sixty-one percent is what we had over the weekend. That's the lowest that Bush has had since 9/11. He may be back into the 50 percent range when the new year starts. We'll wait and see, Catherine.
CALLAWAY: Got any charts on the Trent Lott situation and what's the fallout over that? NEWPORT: Well, we'll all monitoring that carefully. We haven't seen a lot of impact on the image of the Republican Party, but this is kind of what the GOP is up against. We updated this over the weekend.
Is Trent Lott prejudiced against black? Whites, actually 42 percent say yes, so he doesn't do all that well on this issue among the white population. But among black Americans, 65 to 13, yes he is. And this is symptomatic, I think, of all of the issues that went on and why Lott ultimately stepped down because it is a putative (ph) position as the Republican leader in the Senate.
CALLAWAY: I think you know, with the sales being so low this Christmas season, that I think the economy really is on the minds of Americans.
NEWPORT: Indeed it is. It's our number one problem. We asked Americans what's on their mind. We had shown in our earlier data that it wasn't looking to be a great season.
A slight ray of hope. This is of the economy getting better or getting worse. We updated it as of Sunday, but top line's the bad line. It was 59 percent. I say a slight ray of hope. It's 54 in early December said it was getting worse. Now it's only 50 percent. So we've got a four-point down drop on the negative number. That's the kind of graphic we've described (ph), but maybe we're seeing a little optimism now.
CALLAWAY: Yes, maybe as you said, a slight ray of hope. What do people think about the holidays, as well?
NEWPORT: Well, this is a fascinating statistic. Two-thirds of American workers have a holiday party. With 11, lukewarm.
This is a fascinating question we just asked as part of our Gallup/CBS (ph) monitor. Twenty-one percent of American workers were excited about their Christmas parties, 37 percent down to enjoyable. That's not bad.
But here's the Grinches here. Twenty-nine percent was bored, didn't feel strongly about it either way. And 11 percent of American workers either didn't like them and four percent, certainly not true of your party, Catherine, dreaded those Christmas parties.
This is the kind of statistic that really tells us what's going on in America's companies today, right, Catherine?
CALLAWAY: All I have to say is, what party? That's all I have to say.
Thanks, Frank. Have a good holiday.
NEWPORT: Thank you and merry Christmas to you.
CALLAWAY: Thank you.
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President Bush>
Aired December 24, 2002 - 06:53 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: What's on your mind this Christmas eve? Iraq, the economy, the Senate gaffes.
Frank Newport joining us now live with more on the America voice. Any change in the public's stance towards military action in Iraq?
FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP POLL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Well, Catherine, not a lot.
What's interesting is when we've asked this question after over a decade, we've had between 50 and 60 percent of Americans who say they are OK with the principle of the concept of military action in Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein from power.
We just updated that question over the weekend, and here's our latest five times we've asked it. We've tracked this, and like the president's staff (ph) approval, now at 53 percent in principle support the idea. Again, there's a lot of sentiment out there, I should reemphasize, that the United Nations be involved before that action takes place.
Also, North Korea captured -- they're making the news now. We looked back and looked at our yearly update on how Americans see countries. These are the ones that Americans have the most unfavorable opinions of. This is Iraq and Iran; huge unfavorables there. The Libya. North Korea, 65 percent an unfavorable opinion for the public. About a quarter, and that's before the most recent issue about nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants, 23 percent (ph) of Americans, a favorable opinion of North Korea. Not quite as negative as these other two countries -- Catherine.
CALLAWAY: How is the president's standing? How is President Bush's standing going with all this?
NEWPORT: Well, it's our last Gallup poll job approval rating of the year for President Bush. Down -- it continually goes down. Remember, his peak was back in October of 2001 of 90, the highest in Gallup poll history. This was 9/11, that huge uptick.
Then going gradually down since then, Catherine. Sixty-one percent is what we had over the weekend. That's the lowest that Bush has had since 9/11. He may be back into the 50 percent range when the new year starts. We'll wait and see, Catherine.
CALLAWAY: Got any charts on the Trent Lott situation and what's the fallout over that? NEWPORT: Well, we'll all monitoring that carefully. We haven't seen a lot of impact on the image of the Republican Party, but this is kind of what the GOP is up against. We updated this over the weekend.
Is Trent Lott prejudiced against black? Whites, actually 42 percent say yes, so he doesn't do all that well on this issue among the white population. But among black Americans, 65 to 13, yes he is. And this is symptomatic, I think, of all of the issues that went on and why Lott ultimately stepped down because it is a putative (ph) position as the Republican leader in the Senate.
CALLAWAY: I think you know, with the sales being so low this Christmas season, that I think the economy really is on the minds of Americans.
NEWPORT: Indeed it is. It's our number one problem. We asked Americans what's on their mind. We had shown in our earlier data that it wasn't looking to be a great season.
A slight ray of hope. This is of the economy getting better or getting worse. We updated it as of Sunday, but top line's the bad line. It was 59 percent. I say a slight ray of hope. It's 54 in early December said it was getting worse. Now it's only 50 percent. So we've got a four-point down drop on the negative number. That's the kind of graphic we've described (ph), but maybe we're seeing a little optimism now.
CALLAWAY: Yes, maybe as you said, a slight ray of hope. What do people think about the holidays, as well?
NEWPORT: Well, this is a fascinating statistic. Two-thirds of American workers have a holiday party. With 11, lukewarm.
This is a fascinating question we just asked as part of our Gallup/CBS (ph) monitor. Twenty-one percent of American workers were excited about their Christmas parties, 37 percent down to enjoyable. That's not bad.
But here's the Grinches here. Twenty-nine percent was bored, didn't feel strongly about it either way. And 11 percent of American workers either didn't like them and four percent, certainly not true of your party, Catherine, dreaded those Christmas parties.
This is the kind of statistic that really tells us what's going on in America's companies today, right, Catherine?
CALLAWAY: All I have to say is, what party? That's all I have to say.
Thanks, Frank. Have a good holiday.
NEWPORT: Thank you and merry Christmas to you.
CALLAWAY: 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
President Bush>
