Here's YOUR BALONEY on WHEAT!
Bush Support for 2004 Dips Below 50%
Results suggest a close partisan balance is reemerging. Lieberman and Kerry emerge as
early Democratic leaders in the race.
By Ronald Brownstein, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON -- The share of Americans favoring
President Bush's reelection in 2004 has fallen below
50%, while Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut
and John F. Kerry of Massachusetts have emerged as
the leaders for the Democratic nomination to oppose
him, a new Los Angeles Times poll has found.
Just 45% of registered voters said they are now likely
to support Bush for reelection, while 40% said they
were inclined to back the Democratic nominee, the
survey found. Fifteen percent said they don't now lean
in either direction.
As recently as December, just over half of the adults in
a Times poll said they would likely support Bush for
reelection in a question that was phrased slightly
differently.
Though opinions are likely to change several times
before voters go to the polls in 2004, the new results
suggest that the close partisan balance that defined
American politics before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks
is slowly reasserting itself.
The fall in the percentage of voters committing to
support Bush's reelection parallels a decline in his job
approval rating since last fall and the return of sharp
divisions along party lines about his performance. "This
means the public is open to an alternative," said Jim
Jordan, campaign manager for Kerry's presidential
campaign. "This is obviously a Democratic nomination
worth having, and earlier it wasn't absolutely clear that
was going to be the case."
The Times Poll, supervised by polling director Susan
Pinkus, interviewed 1,197 registered voters nationwide
from Jan. 30 through Feb. 2; it has a margin of
sampling error of plus or minus three percentage
points. About half the interviews were conducted
before the loss of the space shuttle Columbia, but
opinions about Bush changed little after the disaster. |
