Support for president remains high

msnbc.com ^ | May 19, 2002 | NBC news (no other author cited)

[DrDeb]

Support for president remains high

NBC/WSJ poll shows division on Bush actions before attacks


NBC NEWS

May 19 — Eight months after the war on terror began, Americans still overwhelmingly support the president. However, when it comes to the actions President Bush could have taken to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks, the public is more divided. Below are the results of the NBC-Wall Street Journal poll, in which 602 people were questioned. The poll, conducted May 18, has a margin of error of 4.0 percentage points.

1. In general, do you approve or disapprove of the job George W. Bush is doing as president?
Approve: 75%
Disapprove: 18%
Previous polling: 4/02 — 74%-20%; 1/02 — 82%-13%; 12/01 — 85%-11%; 11/01 — 88%-7%; 9/01 — 82%-12%; 6/01 — 50%-35%)

2. Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the measures the Bush administration took based on the information they had prior to Sept. 11?
Satisfied with measures: 58%
Dissatisfied with measures: 31%
Not sure: 11%

3. Do you think the Bush administration did as much as was reasonable or could have done more to prevent or warn about hijackings?
Did as much as was reasonable: 53%
Could have done more: 41%
Not sure: 6%

[DrDeb]

Excellent news for President Bush: The American public continues to support him despite the "grotesque" smear campaign mounted last week by the Democrats and their willing accomplices in the media.

Both Newsweek and NBC News/Wall Street Journal have now taken polls post-May 15. These polls indicate that not only have President Bush's approval ratings remained incredibly high, they have actually INCREASED slightly over pre-May 15 polling periods.

NBC News/Wall Street Journal (current and previous approval ratings shown above)

Newsweek
5/16-17/02:
Approve: 73%
Disapprove: 20%
Don't Know: 7 %
4/25-26/02:
Approve: 71%
Disapprove: 16%
Don't Know: 13%

Juxtapose these results with the following polling numbers from Fox News/Opinion Dynamics and CBS/NY Times taken immediately before 5/15 and things look very good for President Bush (and very bad for the Democrats)!

Fox News/Opinion Dynamics
5/14-15/02
Approve: 77% (up from 72% on 4/30/02)
Disapprove: 15%
Don't Know: 8 %

CBS/NY Times
5/13-14/02
Approve: 77% (up from 73% on 4/28/02)
Disapprove: 16%
Don't Know: 7%


Relative to Newsweek's poll, my favorite finding: More people believe that President Clinton was negligent relative to 9/11 (59%) than President Bush (39%). Of course, you would never know this from Newsweek's articles on the subject -- I had to get the info from pollingreport.com!

[hitthefan]

Smear. Poll. Repeat.

[OldFriend]

Wow, thanks for that last bit of information......Of course that will be reported on all newscasts to follow.......

[Howlin]

Just imagine how much support Bush will have when the public finally manages to sift through all this Democratic spin.

BTW, just for fun, post your Hillary numbers on this thread, too! :-)

[swheats]

LOL so true

[swheats]

Hey Howlin I've missed reading your posts. Welcome back.

[Howlin]

Good to be back. I went to the "No News Zone" at some friends' home in Florida. It was DREADFUL!

[VRWC_minion]

Could have done more: 41%

This group includes the tin foil hat folks on the left and the right. This means that the Clinton 42-45% base isn't fully on board with this latest attack.

This will go the way of Enron, SS deficit spending, etc.

[deport]

A couple of other polls from the last few days.....

---

War On Terrorism
All data are from nationwide surveys of Americans 18 & older.

---

Polls listed chronologically.

.

.

Newsweek Poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates. Latest: May 16-17, 2002. N=1,002 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3
						.
"Please tell me whether you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling each of the following specific aspects of his job. Do you approve or disapprove of the way he is handling [see below]?"
		Approve	Disap- prove	Don't Know
		%	%	%
	The war against terrorism overseas
	5/02	76	20	4
	2/02	86	11	3
						.
	Policies to prevent and minimize terrorism at home
	5/02	71	23	6
	2/02	82	14	4
						.
	His job APART FROM fighting and defending against terrorism
	5/02	71	22	7
	2/02	77	18	5
						.
"Thinking about the warnings the Bush Administration received before the September 11th terrorist attacks, did the following individuals do all they should have with the information, or not? . . ."
		Did	Did Not	Don't Know
		%	%	%
	Top FBI officials
	5/02	30	53	17
						.
	Top CIA officials
	5/02	28	53	19
						.
	The President's national security advisers
	5/02	38	46	16
						.
	The President himself
	5/02	48	39	13
						.
"Now thinking about information available to the U.S. government before the September 11th attacks, do you think that the Bush Administration should have issued public warnings about possible airline hijackings?"
			%
	Yes, should have		55
	No		38
	Don't know		7
						.
"Do you think such warnings would have prevented the September 11th attacks or not?"
			%
	Yes, would have		25
	No		67
	Don't know		8
						.
"Again, thinking about information available to the U.S. government before the September 11th attacks, do you think the FBI should have investigated all Arab nationals taking pilot training or not?"
			%
	Yes, should have		77
	No		18
	Don't know		5
						.
"Do you think the Clinton Administration did all it could have to detect and prepare for a possible terrorist attack on the United States?"
			%
	Yes, all it could have		27
	No		59
	Don't know		14
						.
"How much of the blame, if any, do you think each of the following deserves for allowing the September 11th terrorist attacks to happen? What about [see below]? Does this deserve a lot of the blame, some, only a little, or none?"
		A Lot	Some	Only a Little	None	Don't Know
		%	%	%	%	%
	Failure of the FBI and CIA's intelligence efforts to identify and stop terrorist plots from being carried out
	5/02	39	35	14	6	6
	9/13-14/01	30	39	19	8	4
						.
	Inadequate security at airports to prevent terrorists from bringing weapons on planes
	5/02	56	26	9	4	5
	9/13-14/01	57	27	9	5	2
						.
	Inadequate security systems to deal with hijackers while planes are in the air
	5/02	45	30	13	5	7
	9/13-14/01	45	32	13	6	4
						.
"In the wake of the recent developments, do you think President Bush should fire the head of the CIA and other CIA officials who were in charge at the time of the attacks?"
		%
	Yes	23
	No	65
	Don't know	12
						.
"In the wake of the recent developments, do you think President Bush should fire top officials who were in charge at the FBI at the time at the time of the attacks?"
		%
	Yes	23
	No	65
	Don't know	12
						.
"Immediately after September 11th, Congress did not quickly begin a public investigation of intelligence failures of the CIA and FBI. Do you think it was in the national interest for Congress NOT to start such an investigation at that time or should Congress have started a probe immediately?"
				%
	In national interest NOT to start probe			31
	Should have started probe immediately			63
	Don't know			6
						.
"Now, do you think it is in the national interest for Congress to investigate intelligence failures of the CIA and FBI in connection with the September 11th terrorist attacks, or would such a public investigation at this time not be in the national interest?"
				%
	In national interest to investigate			68
	Would not be in national interest			24
	Don't know			8
						.
"Do you think that the intelligence failures of the CIA and FBI in connection with the September 11th terrorist attacks are appropriate issues to be debated during the upcoming congressional campaign or are they not appropriate issues for political debate?"
			%
	Appropriate		52
	Not appropriate		41
	Don't know		7
pollingreport.com

 

CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll. May 16, 2002. N=598 adults nationwide. MoE ± 4.
						.
"First, how much confidence do you have in the Bush Administration to protect its citizens from future terrorist attacks: a great deal, fair amount, not very much, or none at all?"
		Great Deal	Fair Amount	Not Very Much	None At All	No Opinion
		%	%	%	%	%
	5/16/02	38	37	16	7	2
						.
"Overall, how much do you blame each of the following for the September 11th terrorist attacks: a great deal, a moderate amount, only a little, or not at all? How about [see below]?"
		Great Deal	Moderate Amount	Only a Little	Not At All	No Opinion
		%	%	%	%	%
	The Bush Administration
		7	22	26	43	2
						.
	The Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI
		16	29	24	27	4
						.
	The Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA
		19	30	27	18	6
						.
"As you may know, the Bush Administration said today that it was aware before September 11th that Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization had plans to hijack U.S. airplanes. However, the Administration was not aware that the airplanes would be used to blow up buildings, and they were not aware of a specific date or location of attack. Has this made you feel less favorably toward President Bush, or has it not affected your opinion of him?"
		Less Favorably	Not Affected Opinion	More Favorably (vol.)	No Opinion
		%	%	%	%
	5/16/02	32	66	1	1
						.
"Do you think the Bush Administration did or did not act on the information available to them in a proper way?"
		Did	Did Not	No Opinion
		%	%	%
	5/16/02	41	52	7
						.
"Do you think the Bush Administration did or did not give airlines as much warning about hijacking threats as was possible?"
		Did	Did Not	No Opinion
		%	%	%
	5/16/02	29	58	13
						.
"Do you think the Bush Administration should or should not have discussed the fact before now that it had this information prior to September 11th?"
		Should	Should Not	No Opinion
		%	%	%
	5/16/02	68	29	3
						.
"Which comes closer to your view: no one could have predicted the attacks of September 11th, or the government should have been able to predict the attacks of September 11th given the information available to it?"
				%
	No one could have predicted			58
	Should have been able to predict			38
	No opinion			4
						.
"Finally, do you think there should or should not be a congressional investigation into the fact that the Bush Administration did not release this information sooner?"
		Should	Should Not	No Opinion
		%	%	%
	5/16/02	43	55	2
pollingreport.com

[swheats]

LOL I get the image of Breaking News Anonymous at the Betty Ford Center for news addicts. I hear withdrawals can be hard.

[pierrem15]

Our friends in the press:

[McGavin999]

Could have done more: 41%

Of course these people will immediately change their minds when they find out about the plan to get Al Qaeda that was requested by the President and was about to be presented to him. Looks like the Bush administration hit the ground running on this as soon as humanly possible.

The other thing that needs to be stressed is the racial profiling that would have had to take place in order to openly pursue this problem and exactly what they would have faced as a result. Good grief, look at what Ashcroft is going through because he rounded up as many suspects as possible AFTER 9-11.

[rwfromkansas]

This is very interesting because it shows the public knows the President is not all-knowing and could not have stopped Sept. 11 unless he shut down the entire country. Maybe the American public isn't as stupid as I thought.

[antivenom]

O M G!!! Crap news AND "FloriDUH"!

YIKES how did you do it???

[ClancyJ]

I'm also glad to see you back. I wondered if possibly you had gotten fed up with Bush and joined the Bushwhackers.

[YaYa123]

And this is why the left hates FOXNews. Because of FOXNews, people are no longer ignorant, nor at the mercy of the four left leaning networks. To the left leaning media, to their democrat soulmates, this represents a real threat to their legitimacy.

[TommyDale]

This must be difficult for the liberals to swallow.

[AmishDude]

A very little note that few have emphasized. That terrorism report might have gotten written and to the president's desk sooner, but the Clinton administration withheld funds and resources from the transition. These funds are designed to ensure a smooth transition, particularly in the area of national security.