[Peace-discuss] Is America starting to wake up, at last?

[patton paul]

Bush's approval rating sags

Sunday, July 20, 2003 Posted: 8:29 PM EDT (0029 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The public has grown increasingly uneasy with President
Bush's handling of the economy and the situation in Iraq, a new poll
suggests.

Bush's overall job approval dropped 8 points since May to 55 percent,
according to a new CNN-Time poll.

A majority in this poll, 52 percent, said the president is doing a poor
job of handling the economy, and just four in 10 say the U.S.-led military
campaign in Iraq has been a success. That's down from 52 percent who felt
that way in late March.

Fifty-five percent of Americans said they approved of the way Bush is
handling Iraq, according to the poll, compared with 69 percent in May.

The poll of 1,004 adults was conducted Wednesday and Thursday and has an
error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The president's slipping poll numbers come as the effort in Iraq has been
clouded by a controversy over the intelligence cited by the Bush
administration before the war and continuing casualties.

Half in the poll, 50 percent, said it was likely they would support Bush's
re-election, while almost that many, 46 percent, said it was unlikely.

The poll indicated that Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Sen. John Kerry
of Massachusetts, Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri and former Vermont Gov.
Howard Dean were the strongest nationally -- with all grouped in double
digits. Lieberman had 16 percent, and others were slightly behind him.

But a majority of those polled, 66 percent, said Bush is very or somewhat
likely to win the election regardless of how they cast their vote.