Polls show Confidence in Bush Leadership at All-Time Low
By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen
Washington Post
President Bush will deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday at the weakest point of his presidency, facing deep public dissatisfaction over his Iraq war policies and eroding confidence in his leadership, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
With a major confrontation between Congress and the president brewing over Iraq, Americans overwhelmingly oppose Bush's plan to send an additional 21,500 troops to the conflict. By wide margins they prefer that congressional Democrats, who now hold majorities in both chambers, rather than the president, take the lead in setting the direction for the country.
Iraq dominates the national agenda, with 48 percent of Americans calling the war the single most important issue they want Bush and the Congress to deal with this year. No other issue rises out of single digits. The poll also finds that the public trusts congressional Democrats over Bush to deal with the conflict by a margin of 60 percent to 33 percent.
The president will use his speech to try to rally public opinion behind the troop deployment plan, but during the past 10 days he has made no headway in changing public opinion. The Post-ABC poll shows that 65 percent of Americans oppose sending more troop to Iraq; it was 61 percent immediately after the president unveiled the plan on Jan. 10 in a nationally televised address.
The Senate plans to take up a nonbinding bipartisan resolution opposing the president's new plan for troop deployments. But many Democrats in both chambers advocate even stronger measures designed to block the deployment of the additional troops, including capping the number of troops at their levels of Jan. 1 or putting strings on the money for the new troops. They would have broad initial public support to do so: 59 percent of all Americans, including more than a quarter of Republicans, want Congress to try to block the president's plan to send more troops.
More broadly, Bush will be speaking on Tuesday night to a nation that is deeply pessimistic, with just 26 percent of Americans say the country is heading in the right direction and 71 percent saying the country is seriously off track. That is the worst these ratings have been in more than a decade.
(Continued here.)
Here's an AP/AOL news poll:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans are in a dark mood about the state of the union, the administration, Congress, Iraq and even some personal traits of President Bush, a poll finds.
Most believe the country is on the wrong track -- a complete flip from five years ago, according to an AP-AOL News poll that finds little to cheer about in advance of Bush's State of the Union speech Tuesday night.
Americans see the president as likable, decisive and strong -- but also stubborn. Only a minority think he is honest -- 44 percent, down from 53 percent two years ago.
And people seem to have little confidence Bush and the Democrats who now control Congress and share responsibility with him for running the country can work together to solve its problems. Only four in 10 think the country will be better off with Democrats in charge of the House and Senate, the poll suggests.
Bush's speech will come nearly two weeks after he told the nation he is sending 21,500 additional U.S. troops to Iraq in a new effort to end violence there. (Watch what issues the president will address in his State of the Union speechVideo)
The White House says the speech will focus on a few issues, energy and health care among them, on which Bush might be able to reach agreement with Democrats, who control the House and Senate for the first time during his two-term presidency.
Two-thirds of Americans, 66 percent, think the country is on the wrong track. That's about the same as a year ago, when 65 percent thought so, the poll found.
A difficult five years
That's a stark reversal from mid-January 2002, when 68 percent said the country was on the right track and 29 percent said it was not. Then, the nation was still coming to grips with the terrorist strikes four months earlier on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people. And, U.S. troops Bush sent to Afghanistan had toppled the Taliban government that harbored the terrorists believed responsible.
(Continued here.)
And here's the Newsweek poll:
NEWSWEEK Poll: Bush Unpopular, Congress Does Better
In the latest NEWSWEEK poll, Bush’s approval rating remains at its all-time low as his plan to increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq is met with widespread disapproval. Looking to ’08, declared candidate Hillary Clinton is in a statistical dead heat with other potential nominees.
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Brian Braiker
Newsweek
Updated: 6:28 p.m. CT Jan 20, 2007
Jan. 20, 2007 - When President George W. Bush declared earlier this month that the only way to quell sectarian violence in Iraq was to send more than 20,000 additional American troops, he probably knew the move would be unpopular. Indeed, the latest NEWSWEEK poll finds that Bush’s call for a “surge” in troops is opposed by two-thirds (68 percent) of Americans and supported by only a quarter (26 percent). Almost half of all respondents (46 percent) want to see American troops pulled out “as soon as possible.”
Bush’s Iraq plan isn’t doing anything for his personal approval rating either; it’s again stuck at its lowest point in the history of the poll (31 percent). Meanwhile, the new Democratic-controlled Congress is getting relatively high marks. And 55 percent actually trust Congressional Dems on U.S. policy in Iraq, far more than the 32 percent who trust their commander in chief.
While Democrats and Republicans have roundly criticized Bush’s proposal, the president—who received his lowest ratings so far for his handling of the war (24 percent) and terrorism (41 percent)—told a group of U.S. television stations this week that "I believe it will work.” He is in the minority. Nearly half of all respondents to the NEWSWEEK poll (45 percent) say they “strongly oppose” the plan. Nine in 10 Democrats (92 percent), 70 percent of independents and close to a third (31 percent) of Republicans disapprove.
(Continued here.)
Washington Post
President Bush will deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday at the weakest point of his presidency, facing deep public dissatisfaction over his Iraq war policies and eroding confidence in his leadership, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
With a major confrontation between Congress and the president brewing over Iraq, Americans overwhelmingly oppose Bush's plan to send an additional 21,500 troops to the conflict. By wide margins they prefer that congressional Democrats, who now hold majorities in both chambers, rather than the president, take the lead in setting the direction for the country.
Iraq dominates the national agenda, with 48 percent of Americans calling the war the single most important issue they want Bush and the Congress to deal with this year. No other issue rises out of single digits. The poll also finds that the public trusts congressional Democrats over Bush to deal with the conflict by a margin of 60 percent to 33 percent.
The president will use his speech to try to rally public opinion behind the troop deployment plan, but during the past 10 days he has made no headway in changing public opinion. The Post-ABC poll shows that 65 percent of Americans oppose sending more troop to Iraq; it was 61 percent immediately after the president unveiled the plan on Jan. 10 in a nationally televised address.
The Senate plans to take up a nonbinding bipartisan resolution opposing the president's new plan for troop deployments. But many Democrats in both chambers advocate even stronger measures designed to block the deployment of the additional troops, including capping the number of troops at their levels of Jan. 1 or putting strings on the money for the new troops. They would have broad initial public support to do so: 59 percent of all Americans, including more than a quarter of Republicans, want Congress to try to block the president's plan to send more troops.
More broadly, Bush will be speaking on Tuesday night to a nation that is deeply pessimistic, with just 26 percent of Americans say the country is heading in the right direction and 71 percent saying the country is seriously off track. That is the worst these ratings have been in more than a decade.
(Continued here.)
Here's an AP/AOL news poll:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans are in a dark mood about the state of the union, the administration, Congress, Iraq and even some personal traits of President Bush, a poll finds.
Most believe the country is on the wrong track -- a complete flip from five years ago, according to an AP-AOL News poll that finds little to cheer about in advance of Bush's State of the Union speech Tuesday night.
Americans see the president as likable, decisive and strong -- but also stubborn. Only a minority think he is honest -- 44 percent, down from 53 percent two years ago.
And people seem to have little confidence Bush and the Democrats who now control Congress and share responsibility with him for running the country can work together to solve its problems. Only four in 10 think the country will be better off with Democrats in charge of the House and Senate, the poll suggests.
Bush's speech will come nearly two weeks after he told the nation he is sending 21,500 additional U.S. troops to Iraq in a new effort to end violence there. (Watch what issues the president will address in his State of the Union speechVideo)
The White House says the speech will focus on a few issues, energy and health care among them, on which Bush might be able to reach agreement with Democrats, who control the House and Senate for the first time during his two-term presidency.
Two-thirds of Americans, 66 percent, think the country is on the wrong track. That's about the same as a year ago, when 65 percent thought so, the poll found.
A difficult five years
That's a stark reversal from mid-January 2002, when 68 percent said the country was on the right track and 29 percent said it was not. Then, the nation was still coming to grips with the terrorist strikes four months earlier on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people. And, U.S. troops Bush sent to Afghanistan had toppled the Taliban government that harbored the terrorists believed responsible.
(Continued here.)
And here's the Newsweek poll:
NEWSWEEK Poll: Bush Unpopular, Congress Does Better
In the latest NEWSWEEK poll, Bush’s approval rating remains at its all-time low as his plan to increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq is met with widespread disapproval. Looking to ’08, declared candidate Hillary Clinton is in a statistical dead heat with other potential nominees.
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Brian Braiker
Newsweek
Updated: 6:28 p.m. CT Jan 20, 2007
Jan. 20, 2007 - When President George W. Bush declared earlier this month that the only way to quell sectarian violence in Iraq was to send more than 20,000 additional American troops, he probably knew the move would be unpopular. Indeed, the latest NEWSWEEK poll finds that Bush’s call for a “surge” in troops is opposed by two-thirds (68 percent) of Americans and supported by only a quarter (26 percent). Almost half of all respondents (46 percent) want to see American troops pulled out “as soon as possible.”
Bush’s Iraq plan isn’t doing anything for his personal approval rating either; it’s again stuck at its lowest point in the history of the poll (31 percent). Meanwhile, the new Democratic-controlled Congress is getting relatively high marks. And 55 percent actually trust Congressional Dems on U.S. policy in Iraq, far more than the 32 percent who trust their commander in chief.
While Democrats and Republicans have roundly criticized Bush’s proposal, the president—who received his lowest ratings so far for his handling of the war (24 percent) and terrorism (41 percent)—told a group of U.S. television stations this week that "I believe it will work.” He is in the minority. Nearly half of all respondents to the NEWSWEEK poll (45 percent) say they “strongly oppose” the plan. Nine in 10 Democrats (92 percent), 70 percent of independents and close to a third (31 percent) of Republicans disapprove.
(Continued here.)
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