Posted on 08/24/2003 6:07:43 AM PDT by truthandlife
The majority of American voters would not like to see President Bush re-elected to another term according to a poll by Newsweek magazine.
The survey released Saturday showed that 49 percent of registered voters would not back the president for a second term if the vote were held now. Forty-four percent would support Mr. Bush's re-election.
The poll marked the first time in a Newsweek survey that supporters of Mr. Bush were out-numbered by those who would not like to see him back remain in office. In April, 52 percent of voters backed the president for a second term, while 38 percent did not.
The Newsweek report attributed the decline in the president's popularity to public disenchantment over the Iraq war. The poll found 69 percent of respondents said they were concerned that the United States will be bogged down for many years in Iraq without achieving its goals there.
Nearly half of those polled said they were concerned that the cost of the war will lead to a large budget deficit and seriously impact the U.S. economy. And more than half said they thought the estimated $1 billion per week the United States is paying for the war effort is too much and should be scaled back.
However, 61 percent still believe the United States was right to take military action against Iraq in March.
Only 18 percent of those polled believe a stable, democratic government can be set up in Iraq in the long term. And only 13 percent of respondents said U.S. efforts to establish security in Iraq and rebuild the country have gone well since May 1, when combat officially ended.
The Newsweek poll results are based on telephone interviews with more than one thousand adults aged 18 and older. It was conducted on August 21 and 22. The margin of error is plus or minus three percent.
It's pretty pathetic that Newsweak can't even get the terminology correct.
Maybe they hired the guy from NASA who screwed up the kilometers/miles thing on that Mars probe. ;-)
The country is being over run and the GOP doesn't give a damn. What the hell is wrong with the GOP?
Every month we lose 70,000 manurfacturing jobs and the GOP doesn't give a damn.
We have a 500 billion dollar trade deficent and the GOP doesn't give a damn.
We have a 500 billion dollar udget deficet and the GOP doesn't give a damn.
We have massive out soucring of middle class jobs and the GOP doesn't give a damn.
We have government growing bigger under Bush then under Clinton!!!
Yea I am really looking forward to 4 more years of this crap.
But you see, I'm a Freeper, I'm a true conservative and have been for more than three decades and I understand these things and understand what a president's most important role is, and I want to see this country returned to the values that made it great.
What you have to realize, though, is that people like us are in the minority in this country. You can quote every poll in the world about how many people call themselves conservative, how many people call themselves liberal, etc. And I will still contend that "true" conservatives like we are are in a minority, just as the real radical leftists are in a minority as well. Where elections are decided is in the middle.
It was the middle that gave Reagan his big majority in '84 ... or do you think everyone who voted for him in places like New York, etc., all favored true conservatism?
I told you, I can make a philosophical argument that the overtime rules in question are arcane and do not apply to the way things are in 2003.
However, it is issues like those that do resonate with those voters in the middle ... many of whom, whether it's stupidity or not, have structured their economic situation around the fact that they have regular overtime coming in ... who have often shown an inclination to vote for us even if they really don't buy our entire agenda. I just said this in another thread, there are people out there who vote for us, who like tax cuts, who like our position on social issues, who like our positions on defense, the war on terror, etc. ... but who at the same time have no great inclination to undo the New Deal and Great Society, and who have been conditioned to look to the president of the U.S. as the individual responsible for keeping them employed.
So from a political standpoint, is it not utter madness to do something to piss those folks off, and that rightly or wrongly simply invites caricature as the eeeeevilll GOP kowtowing to the corporate special interests and stepping on the throats of the little people, a year before a presidential election?
I truly believe the economic situation is turning around. I pray that things are better by the spring of next year at the latest, I think we need six months of good economic news before the election to make it a lot easier to seal this deal.
But if things don't turn around, and the farther we get removed from 9/11, I believe that in that middle group of voters that decides elections, the war on terror, defense, etc., are going to become secondary to economic issues, because those are the issues that are more tangible to people.
And yes, I'd like to see Howard Dean get the Dem nomination, because I think he'd be the easiest of the crew to beat.
And maybe I, and so many other conservatives, would become a part of his base. Till then, I don't see muchh about him that I like. Better moral charachter than Clinton by far, but no real difference in the direction the country is being moved. Or any genuine effort to change that direction, or even to discuss whether it's the right or wrong direction.
Perfection is an unattainable ideal. An ideal that should never be forgotten and should always be the director of our goals. Otherwise we end up blowing in the direction the wind of popular whim blows; we become the followers instead of the leaders.
That is a real representitive sample considering that about 30% of these respondants will be voters.
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