Economy, Iraq Weighing Down Bush Popularity
Country Losing Ground on Most National Problems
Americans are critical of President Bush’s job performance in many policy areas, but negative opinions of his handling of the economy and Iraq are doing the most damage to his overall approval rating, which now stands at 43%. Just 35% approve of the president’s handling of the economy, down from 43% in February and 45% in January.
With the level of violence rising in Iraq, Bush’s ratings also have slipped on that issue - from 45% in January, to 40% in February, and 37% currently. Over the same period, positive opinions of his handling of foreign policy have fallen 10 points, to 38%. There has been greater stability in Bush’s marks on energy policy and Social Security, but he gets positive ratings of only about 30% on both issues (energy policy 31%, Social Security 29%).
The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted May 11-15 among 1,502 Americans, shows that Bush gets positive marks from a majority of the public on just one issue - his handling of terrorist threats. Currently, 57% approve of his job performance in that area.
An analysis of opinions on Bush’s job performance shows that views of his handling of the economy are now the biggest factor influencing his overall rating, with Iraq nearly as important. Terrorism is less of a factor than either of these issues, although it may be preventing Bush’s overall rating from slipping further.
The survey finds that Bush’s association with a plan to limit the growth of Social Security benefits appears to undermine support for the concept. Most Americans say they would support limiting the growth of benefits for wealthy and middle-income retirees, while keeping the current system intact for lower-income people. But support is significantly lower when the proposal is explicitly associated with Bush. By a 53% to 36% margin, Americans generally favor the idea of limiting benefit growth for wealthy and middle-income Americans, but when the same idea is preceded by the phrase "George W. Bush has proposed..." the public is divided (45% in favor, 43% opposed).
Economy, Iraq Weighing Down Bush Popularity Country Losing Ground on Most National Problems View complete report <http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=244>