Poll: Republicans Much More Intense in Support of Bush
By Alan Elsner
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans feel much more intensely that George W. Bush (news - web sites) should be the next president of the United States than Democrats do about Al Gore (news - web sites), according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Friday.
The poll of 604 voters taken this week found that 60 percent of those who did not support Vice President Gore in the Nov. 7 presidential election would not regard a Gore presidency as legitimate and would believe he had ``stolen the election.''
Fully 70 percent of Bush supporters said they would not regard Gore as a legitimate president.
Only half as many of those who did not vote for Texas Gov. Bush felt the same way. In fact, 47 percent of these non-Bush voters and 43 percent of Gore voters said they would regard a Bush presidency as legitimate. Only 30 percent said they would feel he had stolen the election.
The poll, with a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points, found other signs of bitterness in Republican ranks at any suggestion that Gore might find a way to win the election.
Asked how the two candidates had handled themselves since the election, Democrats were much more generous about Bush than Republicans about Gore.
Forty-seven percent said Bush had handled himself well; 43 percent said the same of Gore. But 37 percent, almost all Republicans, thought Gore had handled himself poorly, while only 16 percent thought Bush had behaved poorly.
Only half of respondents thought the next president, whether he is Bush or Gore, would have a mandate to effectively lead the nation.
Fifty-three percent agreed with the decision of the Florida Supreme Court (news - web sites) that hand counts from some counties should be included in the tally for the state. Some 43 percent, almost all Bush supporters, disagreed.
Asked what the first priority of the new president should be, 20 percent said it should be to unify the country and seek bipartisan cooperation, more than any other category. Second, named by 15 percent of respondents, was to deal with problems in the health care system.
Despite the long delay in resolving the election, a solid majority of voters remained optimistic about the nation's direction and the economy.
Fifty-four percent said the country was headed in the right direction, against 36 percent who thought it was on the wrong track.
More than 80 percent said they were optimistic about their own personal financial situation and only 26 percent thought the United States was on the brink of a recession, with 56 percent saying they expected the current prosperity to continue. |
