WAR AND RECESSION don't shake Americans' belief the U.S. is on track:
12/14/01 WSJ
Seven of 10 say the nation is "headed in the right direction" in a poll for The Wall Street Journal and NBC News, hardly changed from the record 72% who said so in a pre-Sept. 11 survey. "It's a remarkable finding," says Republican Robert Teeter, who conducts the poll with Democrat Peter Hart. Both hail Americans' "perspective" amid tumult.
Bush enjoys "a majority coalition," Teeter says. The president's job approval remains high at 85%, and 80% have positive views of him personally. Even 72% of Democrats approve of his performance; 61% have a positive view of him.
Congress scores higher, too: 57% approve of the job it is doing.
ECONOMIC STIMULUS replaces education among Americans' top priorities.
The ranks of those dissatisfied with the economy doubles to 47% from the year's start. But half say it will get better in the next year and that their children's lives will be better. "We've never seen this kind of optimism" in troubled times, Hart says. The poll, of 1,019 Americans, taken Dec. 8-10, has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
Poll respondents say Bush has a better approach than do Democrats to escape recession, by almost 2 to 1. By a similar margin, they favor business-tax cuts, which Bush demands, to jobless benefits and incentives for consumers. Yet some nuns write Senate Finance Chair Baucus, "Thank God the Democrats have been resisting" Bush's pressure.
BUSH ENJOYS broad support for war on terrorism.
See the full results of the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.
Only 3% oppose him; 81% support his actions, 62% "totally." About six in 10 say he "should take action" against terrorist cells in places such as the Philippines, Somalia and the Sudan -- or against Iraq and leader Saddam Hussein, even if U.S. troops are needed there.
Law-enforcement proposals at home also are popular. Big majorities back military tribunals for terrorist suspects, interviews of legal residents of Arab descent, increased monitoring of e-mails, the detentions of about 600 people without charging or naming them, and wiretapping of detainees' conversations with lawyers.
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