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American Morning
America's Voice
Aired January 29, 2003 - 07:08 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Pollsters are very busy indeed this morning analyzing public reaction to the president's speech. Gallup Poll editor-in-chief Frank Newport joins us from Princeton, New Jersey with some early numbers.
Good morning, Frank.
FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Good morning, Paula.
Indeed, 440 speech watchers, we were up late last night interviewing after the speech. My overall impression is it was an OK speech, not a blockbuster compared to what he did last year.
This is the reaction to the State of the Union address from these speech watchers. This is the percent very positive; 50 percent last night said very positive, quite a bit lower than last year. Of course, that came right after 9/11. Seventy-four percent reacted to his last year's speech very positively. Actually Bush's speech now is very reminiscent to the reaction that Clinton got back on January, '98. We did that for comparison purposes.
Now, among our sample, Iraq was almost 2 to 1 more important in the speech than was the domestic agenda, even though, of course, he talked about the domestic agenda first. He did move the numbers on Iraq, no question about that. These are our speech watchers before the speech, 47 percent said that Bush had made a convincing case for military action in Iraq. That jumped 20 points when we interviewed those same people, Paula, after the speech, 67 percent said he had made a convincing case. So, I think that was very, very positive for the president.
But a couple of different measures on his economic plan, Paula, showed that it just didn't move much at all. In fact, the reaction to his economic plan last night was very similar to his father's economic plan back in 1992, not very stirring numbers on that front -- Paula.
ZAHN: But put this into context for us this morning, Frank, because as I understand, you were able to figure out that watching the speech last night, you had an audience that was 40 percent Republican, 28 percent Democratic and 31 percent Independent. This poll you cannot say accurately reflects what the American public is saying about these very important issues, can you?
NEWPORT: Well, that's absolutely correct. I should point out that almost every speech has people of the president's party watching. It was true for Clinton. Democrats tended to watch. And last night, Republicans more likely to watch than Democrats. So, these are speech watchers, but we're able to compare it to previous speech watchers in other speeches and give you these kind of impressions. We'll be doing polling over the coming week, and that's, Paula, when we'll see if the overall numbers of the American public move and that will probably be the real test of how effective the speech was -- Paula.
ZAHN: To me, the most striking thing you found was the fact that these folks were more concerned about Iraq than the economy, because in the poll you did just last week, it was in fact the economy that surfaced as the chief concern.
NEWPORT: Absolutely a very, very important point. I think all of the commentators made that going into the speech last night, that Americans told us and other pollsters that they're more concerned about the economy. But you're absolutely right. When we talked to them last night, the ones who watched it, after the speech, as I mentioned, almost 2 to 1 they said what they got out of the speech that was more important to them was Bush's comments on Iraq and terrorism.
So clearly, the kind of headlines this morning that emphasized that are what the public is telling us that they thought was important as well -- Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks so much, Frank. Good luck working the phones today. Appreciate your time this morning.
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 - 07:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Pollsters are very busy indeed this morning analyzing public reaction to the president's speech. Gallup Poll editor-in-chief Frank Newport joins us from Princeton, New Jersey with some early numbers.
Good morning, Frank.
FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Good morning, Paula.
Indeed, 440 speech watchers, we were up late last night interviewing after the speech. My overall impression is it was an OK speech, not a blockbuster compared to what he did last year.
This is the reaction to the State of the Union address from these speech watchers. This is the percent very positive; 50 percent last night said very positive, quite a bit lower than last year. Of course, that came right after 9/11. Seventy-four percent reacted to his last year's speech very positively. Actually Bush's speech now is very reminiscent to the reaction that Clinton got back on January, '98. We did that for comparison purposes.
Now, among our sample, Iraq was almost 2 to 1 more important in the speech than was the domestic agenda, even though, of course, he talked about the domestic agenda first. He did move the numbers on Iraq, no question about that. These are our speech watchers before the speech, 47 percent said that Bush had made a convincing case for military action in Iraq. That jumped 20 points when we interviewed those same people, Paula, after the speech, 67 percent said he had made a convincing case. So, I think that was very, very positive for the president.
But a couple of different measures on his economic plan, Paula, showed that it just didn't move much at all. In fact, the reaction to his economic plan last night was very similar to his father's economic plan back in 1992, not very stirring numbers on that front -- Paula.
ZAHN: But put this into context for us this morning, Frank, because as I understand, you were able to figure out that watching the speech last night, you had an audience that was 40 percent Republican, 28 percent Democratic and 31 percent Independent. This poll you cannot say accurately reflects what the American public is saying about these very important issues, can you?
NEWPORT: Well, that's absolutely correct. I should point out that almost every speech has people of the president's party watching. It was true for Clinton. Democrats tended to watch. And last night, Republicans more likely to watch than Democrats. So, these are speech watchers, but we're able to compare it to previous speech watchers in other speeches and give you these kind of impressions. We'll be doing polling over the coming week, and that's, Paula, when we'll see if the overall numbers of the American public move and that will probably be the real test of how effective the speech was -- Paula.
ZAHN: To me, the most striking thing you found was the fact that these folks were more concerned about Iraq than the economy, because in the poll you did just last week, it was in fact the economy that surfaced as the chief concern.
NEWPORT: Absolutely a very, very important point. I think all of the commentators made that going into the speech last night, that Americans told us and other pollsters that they're more concerned about the economy. But you're absolutely right. When we talked to them last night, the ones who watched it, after the speech, as I mentioned, almost 2 to 1 they said what they got out of the speech that was more important to them was Bush's comments on Iraq and terrorism.
So clearly, the kind of headlines this morning that emphasized that are what the public is telling us that they thought was important as well -- Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks so much, Frank. Good luck working the phones today. Appreciate your time this morning.
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
