Posted on 05/14/2004 3:43:30 PM PDT by ambrose
Support for Bush plummets over Iraq
By James Harding in Washington
Published: May 14 2004 21:54 | Last Updated: May 14 2004 21:54
Public support for President George W. Bush's handling of the war in Iraq has plunged to only 36 per cent and his approval rating has fallen to the lowest level of his presidency, according to a Zogby poll due out on Sunday.
Confronted with a rising US body count and images of torture in Abu Ghraib prison, Americans have begun to countenance failure in Iraq. The majority of people polled now do not think it was worth going to war.
The shift in the national mood bodes ill for Mr Bush's hopes of a second term and has bolstered the campaign of John Kerry, his Democrat challenger.
The poll will show 42 per cent of people approve of Mr Bush's overall performance. Almost two-thirds are critical of his handling of Iraq, according to John Zogby, the pollster.
In an American Research Group poll, Mr Kerry moved ahead of Mr Bush in the swing state of Ohio, standing at 50 per cent compared with 43 per cent for the president.
Most alarming to the strategists running Mr Bush's campaign is that 54 per cent of the 1,000-plus likely voters surveyed by Zogby this week said they thought the country was heading in the wrong direction.
Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster and political strategist, said public opinion was moving against the war: "The photographs projected everything the public thinks is wrong about the war and drowned out everything the public thinks is right . . .[The president] has to be concerned."
John Mueller, a political scientist at Ohio State University, says the situation in the US is now "fairly comparable . . . to late '67, early '68 when there was a really substantial decline of support".
Mr Mueller said that much as public backing for the Vietnam war never returned to 50 per cent-plus levels after 1968, so "it is hard to imagine much of a recovery now. As American casualties continue to come in, the support will continue to erode."
In response to the change of mood, the administration's rhetoric advocating the building of a "beacon of liberty" in Iraq has been shored up by language warning of the catastrophe of withdrawal.
As Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, left for Europe to seek support for further troop commitments to the US-led coalition in Iraq, she said: "I would ask people to remember what it was like in World War II. We lost many, many people. Nobody abandoned the countries of Europe because it got tough, because it got hard."
Yet some senior US military officials have begun to express fears that the US will run out of political will before the mission in Iraq is complete.
Zogby is a partisan Arabist hack... and he was soooooo off during the 2004 primaries and 2002 elections...
This poll will be featured on all the weekend shows......count on it.
As a registered Zogby member all I can say is that I wasnt asked....again.
Pass the Depends around the I-hate-Bush crowd, there will be wet pants over this.
What do you mean... you weren't asked?
6 weeks until the handover to the Iraqi interim government from Bremer.
Let em soak. Ive been thinking about these endless polls and I think conservatives have largely stopped taking part in them.
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Actual NH Final Jan 27 -John Kerry 84,229 38% 13 Howard Dean 57,788 26%
Zogby NH Primary Tracking Poll Jan 25
Kerry 31% Dean 28% Clark 13% Edwards 12% Lieberman 9%
RESULT: Actual Diff: 12% (Kerry - Dean)
Actual IOWA caucus 01/20/04 - Kerry 38, Edwards 32, Dean 18, Gephardt drops out
Zogby IOWA Poll for 01/18/04 - Kerry 24, Dean 23, Gephardt 19, Edwards 18.
Yep, count on member boxsmith13 coming here telling us how the election is lost and how we need to warm up to President Kerry.
It all goes back to Vietnam again....
But he was the closest of all the pollsters in 2000.
Can't Zogby find a real job? I mean, something useful? Does he believe that being a human windsock for the democrat party is a real job? Maybe he should go back to Utica and work in WalMart? Or something.
Zogby used to call me about once a week to take part in their polls. Its been more than 6 months since ive heard from them. They also used to e-mail poll questions but have long since stopped polling me.
They know that I'm a conservative, they know I'm a christian, they know a lot of things about me. think about it.
Considering the fact that I'm a Mi resident (a battleground state) you would think they would be asking me to take part in these polls pretty regular like they used to.
Zogby collects personal info for later use by Jihad, Inc.
Bush said from the beginning that this would be a long, hard battle; this battle against terrorism. He made no bones about it.
Then as soon as things aren't tied up with a bow on it and a few things go poorly, millions of people have decdided that the good idea of a few months ago is now a bad idea???????
Either the poll is severely skewed or America has more idiots than I imagined.
So Zogpiss is polling hand selected voters?? I thought it was random telephone calls...
I always come back to the need for republicans to aggressively defend their policies. A serious mistake is made because republicans thibnk most people will see the justice of their cause.
Go to Zogby and register for their free service, I assume they will ask you the same line of questioning they ask for the pay service. You might be suprised.
If Iraq starts looking better and our economy continues doing well, I say Bush's numbers will turn around and he wins in November.
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