Already a Bloomberg.com user?

Sign in with the same account.

Don't have an account? Sign up.

Can Bush Keep His Halo?

Posted on May 02, 2002

When it comes to managing the economy and the war on terrorism -- and to acting as peacemaker in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict -- President George Bush is doing as well or better than a majority of people expected him to do. At least, that's what 2,100-plus respondents had to say in response to our Reader Survey, "Can Bush Keep His Halo?" since it was published on Apr. 24.

Only problem is, a large percentage of those who partcipated in this unscientific reader poll don't think Bush has done particularly well at any of those three tasks -- nor do they think he's likely to in the future.

Bush gets his highest marks for his anti-terrorism campaign in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Nearly 47% of those who responded think he did a good or excellent job in trying to root out the terrorists in Afghanistan. However, 35% give him a poor rating for that effort. And opinions of his performance go downhill from there.

DEFICIT JITTERS. For instance, 63% of those who took the survey give him a poor rating for his handling of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, while only 27% rate his performance good or excellent. And 54% say he has done a poor job of dealing with the economic slowdown, vs. 32% who give him a mark of good or excellent. Some 69% say they're concerned that under Bush, the U.S. again has federal budget deficits, while 27% don't seem to care.

Moreover, survey participants don't have much faith that the President can do appreciably better in the future. Some 44% doubt that he'll realize his goal of neutralizing Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization, vs. the 33% who give him a good or excellent chance.

Some 71% doubt that the Bush Administration's strategy can do much to ameliorate the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, vs. a scant 11% who give Bush a good or excellent chance of succeeding.

GOP'ERS LOG IN. Surprisingly, in light of the current recovery, 46% say there's a poor chance that the Administration's economic policies will reignite profits, capital spending, and employment growth by 2003, while 32% give the President's policies a good or excellent chance of reaching those goals.

Overall, 42.5% of those who participated say that Bush is doing a worse job then they thought he would, while about 57% say he's doing as well or better than they expected.

Incidentally, some 41% of those who participated identified themselves as Republicans, while 34% said they are independents, and 18% said they're Democrats.

Here are the detailed results:

How would you rate Bush's direction of his post-September 11 anti-terrorism campaign?Option

Total

%

Excellent

602

28.34 %

Good

391

18.41 %

Fair

381

17.94 %

Poor

739

34.79 %

No opinion

11

0.52 %

How would you rate his efforts to defuse the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?Option

Total

%

Excellent

201

9.58 %

Good

369

17.59 %

Fair

190

9.06 %

Poor

1330

63.39 %

No opinion

8

0.38 %

How would you rate the President's management of the economy during the recent slowdown?Option

Total

%

Excellent

368

17.53 %

Good

319

15.2 %

Fair

267

12.72 %

Poor

1131

53.88 %

No opinion

14

0.67 %

Are you concerned that the federal budget surpluses of the past few years have turned again into budget deficits?Option

Total

%

No

576

27.43 %

Yes

1453

69.19 %

No opinion

71

3.38 %

What do you think the chances are that the President's anti-terrorism campaign will reach his goals of neutralizing Osama bin Laden and his terrorist organization?Option

Total

%

Excellent

297

14.13 %

Good

405

19.27 %

Fair

465

22.12 %

Poor

923

43.91 %

No opinion

12

0.57 %

What do you think the chances are that the Bush Administration's strategy will help produce a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians?Option

Total

%

Excellent

64

3.05 %

Good

170

8.10 %

Fair

320

15.25 %

Poor

1497

71.32 %

No opinion

48

2.29 %

What do you think the chances are that the Administration's economic policies will reignite profits, capital spending, and employment growth by 2003?Option

Total

%

Excellent

330

15.77 %

Good

350

16.73 %

Fair

415

19.84 %

Poor