Bush gets highest approval rating since Saddam's capture: poll

WASHINGTON (AFP) ^ | 2/8/2005

[wingblade]

Bush gets highest approval rating since Saddam's capture: poll

Tue Feb 8, 9:41 AM ET Politics - AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Boosted by the Iraqi elections and his State of the Union speech, US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) has achieved the highest approval rating, 57 percent, since the capture of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), a new poll said.

The Iraqi vote has also swung opinion about the US-led war there in favor of the Bush administration with 55 percent believing it was not a mistake sending troops to Iraq (news - web sites), up from 47 percent last month, according to the USA-Today/CNN/Gallup poll.

Fifty percent approve of how Bush is handling the situation in Iraq, up from 42 percent last month -- 48 percent disapprove, down from 56 percent last month, it said.

Sixty percent of the 1,010 adults surveyed February 4-6 said the Iraqi election went better than they expected and 53 percent said things were going very or moderately well in Iraq, compared to 40 percent last month.

Sixty-four percent believe some sort of democratic government will be established in Iraq, up from 47 percent last month, and 10 percent say more troops are needed there, against 24 percent last month, the opinion poll showed.

On the domestic front, 54 percent said they approve of Bush's decision to reform the social security pension system, compared to 50 percent who said they disapprove.

But a majority of Americans said health care costs, education and the economy were their top priorities, instead of Bush's: social security, taxes, same-sex marriage and restrictions on lawsuits.

In his State of the Union speech last week, Bush outlined a broad agenda for the next four years that included spreading democracy in the Middle East and overhauling the politically sensitive Social Security (news - web sites) retirement program.

The president's approval rating immediately after Saddam's capture in December 2003 was 59 percent in a USA-Today/CNN/Gallup poll.

[BushisTheMan]

Actually instead of an intern, it was more than likely written by someone like Chrissy Matthews, Tim Russert, Dan the Newsman, etc. that makes up the news as they see fit.