Poll: Bush Ratings [Still sky-high] and Preview of Upcoming Elections

FOXNEWS ^ | Saturday, August 10, 2002 | By Dana Blanton

[JohnHuang2]

Results from the latest Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll show that a majority of Americans continues to approve of the job George W. Bush is doing as president, and most also have a favorable opinion of him personally.

Today, 69 percent of Americans approve of President Bush's job performance and 20 percent disapprove. In late July the president's job performance rating went below 70 percent for the first time since the September terrorist attacks.

[JohnHuang2]

Saturday, August 10, 2002

Quote of the Day by kristinn

[The Iguana]

Well - at any rate - so much for the "clamor" for more gun control.

[JohnHuang2]

Bump!

[mystery-ak]

The *people* trust the Repub. on security and homeland defense...but when it comes to SSI or Education etc. they still like the RATS......this just amazes me.......in other words....Repub protect us, RATS support us.

[JohnHuang2]

But notice that Republicans hold the edge over Democrats in the race for control of Congress.

[JohnHuang2]

Another point: 57% say their Congresscritter deserves reelection -- a bad sign for Democrats. Before the '94 GOP landslide, fewer than 20% said their Congresscritter deserved reelection.

[ken5050]

and dont' forget CFR

[mystery-ak]

Yes, I agree....if this poll is right, there won't be much of a change in Congress....hehehe...(Im still holding out hope that we can get control back of the Senate)

[ken5050]

John dont' forget that these type polls seem to have a built in bias towards the Dems of about 5%...plus the fact that Dem voters are more heavily concentrated in a smaller number of districts....I stand by my prediction of 10+ seat pick up in the House, and 3-4 in the Senate..

[JohnHuang2]

Oops, need to correct a mistake: (in post #6) I was confusing Congressional 'reelect' with 'disapproval' numbers.

Before the '94 GOP earthquake, over 73% disapproved of Congress' performance.

[JohnHuang2]

Re: #9 -- you are absolutely correct, sir. As for your prediction, I like it =^)

[mystery-ak]

I pray you are right!
Please explain the 5% bias you speak of?

[Wphile]

My prediction: the GOP defends all of its seats in the Senate (including Texas) and wins in Minnesota (defeating Wellstone), South Dakota (defeating Johnson), New Jersey (defeating Torricelli) and Missouri (defeating Carnahan). As for the House, the GOP maintains control but I don't know about gaining or losing seats.

[Redleg Duke]

One thing that scares the hell out of me is the number of people that think that the Democrats would be more effective in keeping taxes low! That is a glaring indictment of the stupidity of the average person.

[mware]

I know Torricelli is hurting BIGTIME here in Jersey. He is very vulnerable.

Now is the R's in NJ can make a half decent campaign of it, we will gain his seat in the Senate.

[Norwell]

As usual, unless you can tell us how the 30 or so competitive districts are polling, the data is useless. That Democrats are doing well in Massachusetts and Republicans are doing as well in Texans is not important. How about the new districts in Georgia, PA and Michigan? That is what is important.

[lasereye]

the R's in NJ can make a half decent campaign of it

That hasn't happened in recorded history.

[lasereye]

John dont' forget that these type polls seem to have a built in bias towards the Dems of about 5%...plus the fact that Dem voters are more heavily concentrated in a smaller number of districts....I stand by my prediction of 10+ seat pick up in the House, and 3-4 in the Senate..

You're overoptimistic. I don't know that the pro-Democrat poll bias is true all that much anymore. I get the impression this could be a real low turnout election. The Dems are doing their usual scare job on the seniors, who are most likely to vote. By the fall they'll have found a way to play the race card in the urbanized states as usual and get minorities out to the polls, allowing people like Torricelli to survive. Then there's the stock market. If people who suddenly can't retire when they thought they would blame the GOP for that, it's curtains.

On the other hand, I think alot of conservatives may sit this out. The Republicans have failed to make a case that the Dems are obstructing President Bush in any major way. And Bush hasn't come out with anything lately for them to obstruct anyway. They aren't even talking about the judicial nominees much. What's there for conservative voters to get mad enough about to motivate them to vote?

The Dems strategy of scaring seniors, pro-choice women, minorities and enviromentalists is a blunt instrument they use over and over again. It's like a football team with a huge offensive line and a bruising fullback running it up the middle all the time. Nothing pretty about it but it's effective if you have a team that can't figure out how to stop it or even if they can stop it alot, if they have no way whatsover of scoring points themselves.

[Let's Roll]

Or for campaign finance reform!

[Let's Roll]

They even thought dims would do a better job with taxes - you have to wonder if the people taking this poll think at all.