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Bush Has Stronger Support, Extends Lead Over Kerry in Latest Poll
Talon News ^ | May 12, 2004 | Jimmy Moore

Posted on 05/12/2004 8:01:23 AM PDT by presidio9

In a new presidential election poll that was taken after the Iraqi prison abuse scandal was revealed to the public, President George W. Bush has widened his lead and is still expected to defeat likely Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry in the November election.

The latest Investor's Business Daily/TIPP poll shows Bush handily leading a three-way race against Kerry 46 percent to 41 percent, with independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader garnering 5 percent.

However, even in a two-man election, Bush is still ahead of Kerry by a margin of 47-44.

This latest poll indicates an increase of one percentage point in the president's support over the April 16-22 IBD/TIPP poll.

Although the overall number was only slightly higher for Bush, in the key battleground states for this election, Bush opened up a significant lead over Kerry.

In the mid-April poll, Bush led Kerry by only 3 points. However, in the latest poll, the president's lead tripled to 9 percentage points over Kerry in the key battleground states 49-40.

Among independent voters, Bush and Kerry have nearly identical support, with 40 percent standing with Bush and 39 percent going with Kerry.

Interestingly, the latest IBD/TIPP Presidential Leadership Index, which measures the leadership ability of the president, shows Bush's rating rose 4.5 percentage points from 49.5 in April to 51.8 in May.

TIPP president Raghavan Mayur, who serves as IBD's polling agent, said the results of the poll show that Bush has withstood and has even improved his numbers through some very difficult circumstances that have been thrown his way in recent weeks.

"Despite a tough month, Bush seems to have come out ahead," Mayur observed. "Bush's ratings have improved among 15 of the 21 demographic groups we track."

One noteworthy aspect of the poll is the fact that Bush's supporters seem to be a lot more excited about him that Kerry's supporters are about the Massachusetts senator.

Among Bush supporters, 68 percent say they support Bush strongly. Conversely, a mere 38 percent of Kerry supporters support him strongly.

Another startling part of the poll is that support from the party faithful is much more prevalent among Republicans for Bush than Democrats for Kerry.

Nine out of ten Republicans polled say they will definitely be voting for Bush compared with 77 percent of Democrats who will cast their vote for Kerry.

In fact, one out of every eight Democrats expressed an interest in voting for Bush in November instead of Kerry.

Of those polled who are "very satisfied" with their choice for president, 42 percent of Republican voters said they were compared with just 11 percent of Democratic voters.

Although the vast majority of this poll does not bode well for Kerry, there were a few glimmers of hope for his campaign.

While Bush has wrapped up a tremendous amount of support early, Kerry has begun to attract new voters to his campaign in recent weeks, with 70 percent of recent deciders going with Kerry compared with 24 percent for Bush.

Mayur says Bush's surprising numbers in light of the Iraqi prison controversy can be explained by four distinct reasons.

He points to the improvements in the economy, including the 1.3 million new jobs added in the past eight months, as well as the positive effect the tax cuts have had.

Also, the Bush campaign's strategy of targeting advertising and appearances in the Midwest, which includes a lot of the so-called swing state, has seemed to pay off.

Bush's lead has risen sharply in the Midwest, going from a 45-40 lead in April to 51-36 in May.

"Each hand you shake is worth 100 votes," Mayur explained.

Then Mayur said Bush's leadership skills are paying great dividends, despite the difficult times, with eight out of ten Americans portraying the president as a strong leader.

"And as things get tougher in Iraq, we expect more Americans to gravitate toward him," he predicted.

Finally, overall support for the war in Iraq has not wavered much.

Fifty-seven percent support the war, including 52 percent who say the world is safer as a result of American action.

Regarding the war on terrorism, 47 percent say America is winning while 36 percent believe the U.S. is losing.

Although tremendous pressure has been placed on the Bush administration in the wake of the Iraq prison abuse ordeal, Mayur states Bush is not being blamed by the American people for it.

"Americans understand that a handful of people were responsible for the incidents and perhaps have accepted Bush's apology," Mayur concluded.

The poll of 981 adults, including 823 registered voters, was conducted May 2-8 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2004; 911photos; deeplysaddened; kewl; polls
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1 posted on 05/12/2004 8:01:25 AM PDT by presidio9
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To: presidio9
That Al-Queda video will wipe out the negative fog that hung over the prison story.
2 posted on 05/12/2004 8:03:52 AM PDT by Semper Paratus
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To: presidio9
In the mid-April poll, Bush led Kerry by only 3 points. However, in the latest poll, the president's lead tripled to 9 percentage points over Kerry in the key battleground states 49-40.

The key sentence in the article.

3 posted on 05/12/2004 8:04:03 AM PDT by Straight Vermonter (06/07/04 - 1000 days since 09/11/01)
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To: presidio9
The poll of 981 adults, including 823 registered voters . . .

So, they are buys asking voting questions of individuals who are not even registered to vote and probably will not vote. Geeze.

4 posted on 05/12/2004 8:04:46 AM PDT by RetiredArmy (We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American Way! Toby Keith)
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To: RetiredArmy
My bad. "buys" = busy.
5 posted on 05/12/2004 8:05:41 AM PDT by RetiredArmy (We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American Way! Toby Keith)
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To: RetiredArmy
usually we do worse with registered voters so this poll, if accurate, may be very good news.
6 posted on 05/12/2004 8:06:24 AM PDT by cajungirl (<i>swing low, sweet limousine, comin' fer to Kerry me hoooommmee</i>)
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To: RetiredArmy
seems polls are useless at predicting outcomes unless they use the "likely voter" process.

polls like the one in this article do however indicate overall/general trends....just not the trends of likely voters.

even so, the trend is sure positive IMO.
7 posted on 05/12/2004 8:08:22 AM PDT by Principled
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To: Straight Vermonter

Little Tommy's reaction to this news was predictable.

8 posted on 05/12/2004 8:13:44 AM PDT by presidio9 (Islam is as Islam does)
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To: presidio9
Yup this looks good. I bet it will soon look even better. Bergs killing will bring a lot of people to Bush too.
The terrorist thought it would ruin him, but I think they made a big mistake. People are not going to forget what sick scum they are for many many years.

The Dems thought those photos of ABu would ruin him, but that will soon be forgotton or at least put on the back burner because of the sick terrorists.
9 posted on 05/12/2004 8:15:31 AM PDT by GottaLuvAkitas1
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To: presidio9
"Despite a tough month, Bush seems to have come out ahead," Mayur observed. "Bush's ratings have improved among 15 of the 21 demographic groups we track."

People admire strength in the face of adversity. The best thing for Bush is to have his enemies (foreign and domestic) pummel him.

10 posted on 05/12/2004 8:16:02 AM PDT by randog (Everything works great 'til the current flows.)
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To: Semper Paratus
That Al-Queda video will wipe out the negative fog that hung over the prison story.

I just told my wife that yesterdays video will take a lot of the steam out of the "Prisongate" story and change some public opinion...

11 posted on 05/12/2004 8:21:22 AM PDT by tubebender
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To: Semper Paratus
"That Al-Queda video will wipe out the negative fog that hung over the prison story."


Don't count on it, they're allready treating it like the UN oil for food scandal.
12 posted on 05/12/2004 8:22:35 AM PDT by cripplecreek (John Kerry, the Eddie Haskell candidate.)
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To: cripplecreek
"Don't count on it, they're allready treating it like the UN oil for food scandal."

...and the booming economy and jobs situation.

13 posted on 05/12/2004 8:24:25 AM PDT by paulsy
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To: Semper Paratus
"That Al-Queda video will wipe out the negative fog that hung over the prison story.

It already is, I am hearing folks on the local Radio stations who have always been Liberals and did not want troops in Iraq(Having heard these same individuals over the years espouse their views), say everyone needs to start supporting the troops and just let them go in and do whatever it takes to wipe out the Terrorists. Including but not limited to leveling Faluja.

These same people are also pretty pissed at the folks making hay out of the so called Iraqi Prisoner abuse. The far left anti-American Dims are slowly but surely making themselves the most despised folks in America.

14 posted on 05/12/2004 8:25:08 AM PDT by JustAnAmerican
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To: presidio9
I remain convinced that countless voters who will never be polled will climb up out of the woodwork in the 2004 election.
15 posted on 05/12/2004 8:25:25 AM PDT by tkathy (nihilism: absolute destructiveness toward the world at large and oneself)
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To: Semper Paratus
"That Al-Queda video will wipe out the negative fog that hung over the prison story."

Um, who is aware that this video even exists besides FR and internet users? Hell, I'll bet that most people that steal oxygen in this country know more about the prisoner hazing than the beheading of that poor soul.

Very frustrating!
16 posted on 05/12/2004 8:28:52 AM PDT by gathersnomoss
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To: tkathy
And, the polls are talking to more rats because they don't use cell phones and they answer the phone because thet don't have caller ID.
17 posted on 05/12/2004 8:28:57 AM PDT by jmaroneps37 ( Kerry's not "one of us": catholicagainstkerry.com. needs your help.)
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To: Straight Vermonter
I disagree. This is:

"In a new presidential election poll that was taken after the Iraqi prison abuse scandal was revealed to the public, President George W. Bush has widened his lead and is still expected to defeat likely Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry in the November election."

However, they seem to have polled people not registered to vote, which is stupid.

18 posted on 05/12/2004 8:36:13 AM PDT by cake_crumb (UN Resolutions = Very Expensive, Very SCRATCHY Toilet Paper)
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To: cake_crumb
I don't understand....Fox just told me that USA Today/GAllop had a poll where ALL OF BUSH'S NUMBER'S ARE DOWN. I like this poll better...hehe....
19 posted on 05/12/2004 8:40:13 AM PDT by bornintexas (Sign the release form for the DOD to release "all" your records, John F'n Skerry!)
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To: presidio9
Bad news for "Three Bandaid" Kerry.
20 posted on 05/12/2004 8:41:54 AM PDT by Ciexyz
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