Posted on 01/22/2007 10:23:17 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Washington, D.C. (AHN) - On the eve of President Bush's State of the Union address, most Americans are unhappy with the president's conduct of the Iraq war and a significant majority are concerned that the nation is headed in the wrong direction, according to two separate opinion polls.
An AP-AOL poll released Monday finds that 66 percent of Americans believe the country is going the wrong way, while a Washington Post-ABC News poll released Sunday shows flagging confidence in Bush's ability to manage the Iraq conflict. That survey found that when it came to handling the war, Americans trusted Democrats in Congress more than the president by a margin of 60 percent to 33 percent.
As Bush prepares to present his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, the Washington Post-ABC News poll seems to underscore a presidency swamped by surging public doubts about the merits of American involvement in Iraq.
The AP-AOL poll suggests that Americans have not entirely dismissed the president, nor are they prepared to give the Democrats a free ride. That survey found that 60 percent have no confidence that the Democrats can set aside their partisan agenda in order to work with Bush for the good of the country. The poll also found that a majority of Americans still rank the president high on personal qualities such as strength, decisiveness and likability but paradoxically, only a minority - 44 percent - considers Bush honest.
Although the president is expected to use part of his address to try and bolster support for his new war strategy, according to an AP report, Bush will devote the lion's share of his speech to issues on which he might find compromise with the Democrats, including health care and energy. However, just two weeks after announcing that he would send an additional 21,000 troops to Iraq in an effort to curb sectarian and insurgent violence, the polls suggest that the war is the leading concern of most Americans and has become a drag on the nation's overall confidence.
In mid-January 2002, a year before the U.S. led invasion of Iraq, an AP poll found that 68 percent of Americans felt the nation was on the right course. In the years since the invasion that number has virtually flipped-flopped, producing the 66 percent "wrong direction" result found in the current poll. And while the president may hope to use his speech to inspire fresh confidence in the Iraq mission, the Washington Post-ABC poll shows strong bi-partisan opposition to his plan to send additional troops, 59 percent of all Americans, including more than a quarter of Republicans, favoring Congressional intervention to stop the president's plan.
The Post-ABC News poll was conducted Jan. 16-19 among a random sample of 1,000 adults. The margin of error was plus-or-minus 3 percentage points.
The AP-AOL poll contacted 1,005 adults and was conducted Jan. 16-18 by Ipsos, an international polling firm. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Both polls were conducted by phone.
Deb, I was so angry at the three GOP Senators who defected today, I sent a nasty note to the RNC. No money, no parties, no get out the vote. I will not work for a party that will not support our president and the Conservative base which elected them.
. . . any time!
. . . Hagel, Snowe -- who was the third?
America was headed in the right direction in January of 2002? We were knee deep in a recession and dust from the collapsed WTC.
Electing a Dem congress and senate is the "wrong track" in my book.
First they have to establish a "control" figure -- "How many consider the AOL-AP to be an honest, reputable, fair-dealing organization?"
Anyone???
Warner of VA. Dork.
I just got off the phone with Warner's office -- it was quite a CATHARTIC experience!!
The problem is we stopped, and we lost forward momentum - we forgot the buzz words from the liberal play book:
ATTACK! ATTACK! ATTACK!
SS
In addition to the constant propaganda campaign, I wonder how much of the voting in 06 were driven by these polls and the voters' desire to be on the winning team? In an election, the winning candidate always has more people who said vote for him/her than the number of the actual votes. If the winner can be determined ahead of time, it would be a reasonable assumption that more voters would vote for the predetermined winner.
Has anybody ever been asked to take part in a poll? Nobody has ever asked my opinion.
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