Posted on 10/04/2004 6:10:21 PM PDT by livinez
More voters consider President Bush a strong leader who can do a better job combatting terrorism even though they widely agree that Democratic Sen. John Kerry won the first debate focused solely on foreign policy.
The Republican incumbent has a slight lead over Kerry -- 49 percent to 44 percent -- among likely voters questioned in the Pew Research Center poll released Monday. Several surveys conducted after last Thursday's debate showed the race even.
Bush and Kerry were running even at 47 percent apiece in a CBS-New York Times poll, and Bush was slightly up in an ABC-Washington Post poll out Monday.
The Pew poll of 810 likely voters showed Kerry gaining strength against Bush through the weekend. By a 2-to-1 margin, voters who saw the debate said Kerry did a better job than the president.
But almost half of the 1,002 registered voters in the poll -- 48 percent -- said Kerry changes his mind too much to be a good commander in chief and four in 10 say he would give allies too much say in foreign policy decisions.
More saw Bush as a strong leader -- 57 percent to 32 percent -- and they preferred the incumbent on defending the country from terrorism by the same margin. Bush was slightly stronger on handling Iraq while Kerry had the edge on domestic issues like the economy and health care.
But more than half -- 55 percent -- said they don't think the president has a clear plan for bringing the situation in Iraq to a successful conclusion.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
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Anyone else notice Kerry's persistent hand tremor during the debate that he tried to still by making a fist?
The premise is incorrect. Quick, name 3 things Kerry said and three Bush said? The three Kerry things that come to mind are all bad news for him. Global Test, Bilateral Korea, and Nuke fuel to Iran. On the other hand Bush said, changes positions, global what? and victory. Check Hugh Hewitt .com and see his take on the debate. Also, there's a "sandbag" article here on FR by Butler. Kerry seemed more articulate until you note what he said. Today he's battling Klingons. He said not just a global test, but beyond the globe. That's gotta mean Klingons don't it?
If the numbers were reversed, they'd be saying Kerry had a substantial lead.
Transparency In Leftward Bias of "The MSM" Marches On. They just think it's concealed.
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