Poll: Iraq war could wound GOP at polls
(CNN) -- President Bush's unpopularity -- due largely to the war in Iraq -- seems likely to affect GOP candidates in congressional midterm elections in November, according to a CNN poll released Wednesday.
Fifty-five percent of 1,004 Americans said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who has supported Bush administration policies, according to the poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation on behalf of CNN. Forty percent said they would be more likely.
Asked a similar question in 1994 regarding President Clinton, 51 percent of Americans said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who had supported the Democratic administration.
The war in Iraq appears to be a main factor in Republican opposition, poll results show. Fifty-eight percent of poll respondents said they are opposed to the war, compared with 39 percent who approve of it. (Watch why Republicans are on the ropes -- 2:47)
The war seems to have gained some popularity; 61 percent of poll respondents last month were opposed to the war.
Sixty-two percent said they believe no one is winning the war; 25 percent said the United States is winning and 12 percent said the insurgents are winning.
Asked whether former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, 52 percent said he was not, but 43 percent said they believe he was. The White House has denied Hussein's 9/11 involvement -- most recently in a news conference August 21, when President Bush said Hussein had "nothing" to do with the attacks.
Asked whether the Iraq war is part of the U.S.-led war on terror, 53 percent said they believe it is a separate action, while 45 percent said they believe it is connected, as the Bush administration has repeatedly insisted.
The telephone poll was conducted from August 30 to September 2 with 1,004 adult Americans responding. The sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points, except for the questions regarding Hussein and whether Iraq is part of the war on terror. The sampling error for those questions is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
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