Bush support is near lowest ever, poll says

NY Times
Sep. 15, 2005

WASHINGTON A summer of bad news from Iraq, high gas prices, economic unease and now the devastation of Hurricane Katrina has left President George W. Bush with overall approval ratings for his job performance and handling of Iraq, foreign policy and the economy at or near the lowest levels of his presidency, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

For the first time, only half of Americans approved of Bush's handling of terrorism, which had been his consistent strength since he scored 90 percent approval ratings in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

More than 6 in 10 respondents now say that he does not share their priorities for the country, 10 percentage points worse than on the eve of his re-election last fall, while barely half say he has strong qualities of leadership, about the same percentage as during the early low-ebb of his presidency in summer 2001.

More Americans now distrust the federal government to do the right thing than at any time since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

And the poll revealed a sharp racial divide: While half of all respondents disapprove of the way Bush has handled the aftermath of Katrina, nearly three-quarters of blacks do. (Bush won about 10 percent of the black vote last year).

Taken together, the numbers suggest that a public that has long seen Bush as a determined leader, whether it agreed with him or not, now has growing doubts about his capacity to deal with pressing problems. More than 6 in 10 respondents said they were uneasy about his ability to make the right decisions about the war in Iraq, and half expressed unease about his ability to deal with the problems facing Katrina's victims.

Bush's support remained strong only among Republicans, conservatives, evangelical Christians and those who said they voted for him. Nearly twice as many people, 63 percent, said the country was "pretty seriously" on the wrong track as opposed to those who said it was headed in the right direction, equal to the worst level of Bush's presidency during a spate of bad news last year.

Overall, 41 percent of respondents approved of Bush's performance in office, while 53 percent disapproved.

Those figures are in line with other national polls conducted in the past week - roughly equal to the worst ratings Bush has ever received, comparable to Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton's worst ratings, but well above the worst ever posted by the president's father, or Jimmy Carter and Richard M. Nixon.

The Times/CBS News poll was conducted Friday through Tuesday with 1,167 adults, including 877 whites and 211 blacks. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points for all respondents and whites, and seven percentage points for blacks.

The survey was mostly completed before Bush said Tuesday that he accepted responsibility for flaws in the federal response to the hurricane.

WASHINGTON A summer of bad news from Iraq, high gas prices, economic unease and now the devastation of Hurricane Katrina has left President George W. Bush with overall approval ratings for his job performance and handling of Iraq, foreign policy and the economy at or near the lowest levels of his presidency, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

For the first time, only half of Americans approved of Bush's handling of terrorism, which had been his consistent strength since he scored 90 percent approval ratings in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

More than 6 in 10 respondents now say that he does not share their priorities for the country, 10 percentage points worse than on the eve of his re-election last fall, while barely half say he has strong qualities of leadership, about the same percentage as during the early low-ebb of his presidency in summer 2001.

More Americans now distrust the federal government to do the right thing than at any time since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

And the poll revealed a sharp racial divide: While half of all respondents disapprove of the way Bush has handled the aftermath of Katrina, nearly three-quarters of blacks do. (Bush won about 10 percent of the black vote last year).

Taken together, the numbers suggest that a public that has long seen Bush as a determined leader, whether it agreed with him or not, now has growing doubts about his capacity to deal with pressing problems. More than 6 in 10 respondents said they were uneasy about his ability to make the right decisions about the war in Iraq, and half expressed unease about his ability to deal with the problems facing Katrina's victims.

Bush's support remained strong only among Republicans, conservatives, evangelical Christians and those who said they voted for him. Nearly twice as many people, 63 percent, said the country was "pretty seriously" on the wrong track as opposed to those who said it was headed in the right direction, equal to the worst level of Bush's presidency during a spate of bad news last year.

Overall, 41 percent of respondents approved of Bush's performance in office, while 53 percent disapproved.

Those figures are in line with other national polls conducted in the past week - roughly equal to the worst ratings Bush has ever received, comparable to Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton's worst ratings, but well above the worst ever posted by the president's father, or Jimmy Carter and Richard M. Nixon.

The Times/CBS News poll was conducted Friday through Tuesday with 1,167 adults, including 877 whites and 211 blacks. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points for all respondents and whites, and seven percentage points for blacks.

The survey was mostly completed before Bush said Tuesday that he accepted responsibility for flaws in the federal response to the hurricane.