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American Morning

Bush Approval Ratings Continue to Drop

Aired September 12, 2003 - 09:32   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about terror worries. Casualties in Iraq and the economy all weighing on Americans and their views about the president. According to CNN's latest poll, the president's job approval rating has fallen by almost 20 percentage points since April. Senior political analyst Bill Schneider joins us from Los Angeles this morning.
Bill, good morning. It's nice to see you.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about before and after the speech on Sunday. The approval rating 59 percent before the speech, after the speech dropped to 52 percent. The question that was asked was this: how are things going in the U.S. at this time? Forty percent said satisfied, 58 percent dissatisfied with how things are going. Overall huge, huge problem for the president, right?

SCHNEIDER: That's right. It is a problem for the president. And one thing he can try to do is change the subject from the economy, which is clearly driving these figures down, which is what he did in the midterm election last year when the Republicans were in trouble. The president barnstormed the country, campaigning for Republican candidates and touted his leadership in the war on terrorism. And it worked.

But can it work again? Well, his job ratings are now lower than they were a year ago, about ten points lower. Fewer people think things are going well in the country. And Iraq does not look quite as much like a triumph as it did on May 1 when the president landed on that aircraft carrier and declared mission accomplished. So it's going to be tough.

O'BRIEN: And, in fact, you have to imagine when the questions involve what's going on overseas, the barnstorming thing may not really be a good sell.

For example, another poll question, 59 percent said that President Bush does not have a clear plan for handling the situation in Iraq. If you take a look, 40 percent said yes, 59 percent said no. Obviously a correlation, one has to imagine, between the soldiers that are being killed every day and the president's approval numbers.

So give me a sense from the White House on how you turn that around. SCHNEIDER: Well that correlation you just mentioned does exist if Americans are not sure that the president has a clear plan. And that's very dangerous news coming out of his speech because if people have the impression that the administration doesn't have a clearly defined game plan in Iraq, then tolerance for casualties becomes much less.

These numbers are dangerous because look what happened. After the president laid out his policy in Iraq in a speech to the American people, the number who said the administration does not have a clear plan in Iraq actually went up from 54 percent to 59 percent. That is not supposed to happen.

O'BRIEN: Next question, which party will do a better job protecting the country from terrorism? If you look at the numbers here, Republican Party, 51 percent say the Republican Party, 36 percent say the Democratic Party.

But then another question, which was, which party would do a better job at keeping the country prosperous? The Democratic party at 46 percent, Republican Party at 42 percent. So how does the president then sort of strategize in order to not only improve those numbers but say that he can handle this on both fronts? Because clearly both of those things are very important to the voting public.

SCHNEIDER: Yes, well notice something. The president and his party still get very high marks for handling the war on terrorism, but not Iraq.

In his speech, the president said that Iraq is now a central front in the war on terrorism. But these numbers suggest that Americans are increasingly of the view that what the United States is doing now in Iraq may be a diversion from the war on terrorism, because his marks on Iraq are low and the war on terrorism are still pretty high.

You know, Soledad, the quality that Americans most like about this president has always been leadership. When he thinks a policy is right he carries it through with relentless determination. He did that in Iraq, despite the opposition of much of the world. And he did it on the tax cuts, even though a lot of Americans were skeptical.

The problem is neither one of those policies seems to be working right now. The situation in Iraq seems to be chaotic and the tax cuts are not producing jobs.

So why not alter the course? That's exactly what he's doing in Iraq, by going to the United Nations, by seeking help from other countries.

Well why not try something new to boost jobs? That's the challenge.

O'BRIEN: That is just one of the many challenges.

All right, Bill Schneider, thanks for that analysis. Appreciate it.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

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 September 12, 2003 - 09:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about terror worries. Casualties in Iraq and the economy all weighing on Americans and their views about the president. According to CNN's latest poll, the president's job approval rating has fallen by almost 20 percentage points since April. Senior political analyst Bill Schneider joins us from Los Angeles this morning.
Bill, good morning. It's nice to see you.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about before and after the speech on Sunday. The approval rating 59 percent before the speech, after the speech dropped to 52 percent. The question that was asked was this: how are things going in the U.S. at this time? Forty percent said satisfied, 58 percent dissatisfied with how things are going. Overall huge, huge problem for the president, right?

SCHNEIDER: That's right. It is a problem for the president. And one thing he can try to do is change the subject from the economy, which is clearly driving these figures down, which is what he did in the midterm election last year when the Republicans were in trouble. The president barnstormed the country, campaigning for Republican candidates and touted his leadership in the war on terrorism. And it worked.

But can it work again? Well, his job ratings are now lower than they were a year ago, about ten points lower. Fewer people think things are going well in the country. And Iraq does not look quite as much like a triumph as it did on May 1 when the president landed on that aircraft carrier and declared mission accomplished. So it's going to be tough.

O'BRIEN: And, in fact, you have to imagine when the questions involve what's going on overseas, the barnstorming thing may not really be a good sell.

For example, another poll question, 59 percent said that President Bush does not have a clear plan for handling the situation in Iraq. If you take a look, 40 percent said yes, 59 percent said no. Obviously a correlation, one has to imagine, between the soldiers that are being killed every day and the president's approval numbers.

So give me a sense from the White House on how you turn that around. SCHNEIDER: Well that correlation you just mentioned does exist if Americans are not sure that the president has a clear plan. And that's very dangerous news coming out of his speech because if people have the impression that the administration doesn't have a clearly defined game plan in Iraq, then tolerance for casualties becomes much less.

These numbers are dangerous because look what happened. After the president laid out his policy in Iraq in a speech to the American people, the number who said the administration does not have a clear plan in Iraq actually went up from 54 percent to 59 percent. That is not supposed to happen.

O'BRIEN: Next question, which party will do a better job protecting the country from terrorism? If you look at the numbers here, Republican Party, 51 percent say the Republican Party, 36 percent say the Democratic Party.

But then another question, which was, which party would do a better job at keeping the country prosperous? The Democratic party at 46 percent, Republican Party at 42 percent. So how does the president then sort of strategize in order to not only improve those numbers but say that he can handle this on both fronts? Because clearly both of those things are very important to the voting public.

SCHNEIDER: Yes, well notice something. The president and his party still get very high marks for handling the war on terrorism, but not Iraq.

In his speech, the president said that Iraq is now a central front in the war on terrorism. But these numbers suggest that Americans are increasingly of the view that what the United States is doing now in Iraq may be a diversion from the war on terrorism, because his marks on Iraq are low and the war on terrorism are still pretty high.

You know, Soledad, the quality that Americans most like about this president has always been leadership. When he thinks a policy is right he carries it through with relentless determination. He did that in Iraq, despite the opposition of much of the world. And he did it on the tax cuts, even though a lot of Americans were skeptical.

The problem is neither one of those policies seems to be working right now. The situation in Iraq seems to be chaotic and the tax cuts are not producing jobs.

So why not alter the course? That's exactly what he's doing in Iraq, by going to the United Nations, by seeking help from other countries.

Well why not try something new to boost jobs? That's the challenge.

O'BRIEN: That is just one of the many challenges.

All right, Bill Schneider, thanks for that analysis. Appreciate it.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

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