"A CBS News poll found 77 percent approval for Bush's speech, with his job approval rating jumping five points overnight to 64 percent and approval of his handling of the Iraq crisis climbing 10 points to 63 percent"
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As War Nears, Approval Ratings Rise for Bush
Wed Mar 19, 4:57 PM ET Add Politics to My Yahoo!
By John Whitesides
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - On the brink of war with Iraq (news - web sites), President Bush (news - web sites) has surged in public opinion polls as Americans put aside their doubts about the conflict to rally around their leader in a time of crisis.
Polls taken since Bush delivered his 48-hour ultimatum to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) on Monday have found a jump in support for Bush and for his plans to use military force to disarm Baghdad.
"It's a matter of national unity in a crisis," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. "People are putting aside their reservations. The question is for how long? That is anyone's guess."
An ABC/Washington Post poll taken after Bush's televised speech to the nation found support for war jumped to 71 percent from 59 percent a week ago, and support for Bush's handling of the crisis increasing by nine points to 64 percent.
A CBS News poll found 77 percent approval for Bush's speech, with his job approval rating jumping five points overnight to 64 percent and approval of his handling of the Iraq crisis climbing 10 points to 63 percent.
The surge in U.S. approval for Bush, who is up for re-election in 2004, comes as polls find support for his policies plummeting around the globe.
An Ipsos Public Affairs poll released on Wednesday said majorities in five countries -- France, Japan, Spain, Canada and Britain -- believe their governments should distance themselves from the United States. Public opinion was split in three others -- Germany, Italy and Russia.
Majorities in Canada, France and Britain also called for extending the U.N. inspection process in Iraq by at least four months. The poll echoes a Pew survey released on Tuesday that found negative views of America and its policies gaining ground even among key allies such as Britain.
"American public opinion is on a different track than every other country around the world," said pollster Thomas Riehle of Ipsos.
Bush's gains in the United States have come primarily among skeptical Democrats, whose support for war grew in the ABC poll to 58 percent from 46 percent last week, and independents, who showed a 17-point jump to 67 percent.
There also was a turnaround in the public's long-standing desire for U.N. backing for any military action, with the ABC poll finding 75 percent disapproved of the United Nations (news - web sites)' handling of the issue and 66 percent supported Bush's decision not to seek a Security Council vote on a second resolution.
While the public's reservations about war have faded as diplomatic efforts crumbled and the likelihood of conflict grew, "those reservations may come back to haunt the president if it's not successful," Kohut said.
Although 69 percent of Americans are confident Bush's policy on Iraq is the right one, the ABC poll found only about four in 10 were "very confident."
"I don't think Bush's numbers will go down real fast during the heat of battle, but they can go down pretty quickly if this turns out to be a prolonged conflict with heavy casualties," Kohut said.
"The real risk here is that there has been such an expectation built up about how quickly and easily this will happen, people are going to be shocked if that is not the case," he said.
The Iraq war promises to be a wild card in next year's election, although it could be a distant memory by the November 2004 voting. Democrats expect bread-and-butter issues like the economy and health care will move back to the forefront.
Former President George Bush, the current president's father, learned the hard way how fleeting approval ratings can be after a war. He soared to around 90 percent approval after the first Gulf War (news - web sites) in 1991, only to plunge 40 points by December of that year and bottom out below 30 percent before losing his 1992 re-election bid to Democrat Bill Clinton (news - web sites).
Riehle said the current Bush administration has done a good job selling its Iraqi policy to the public, but U.S. public opinion on the issue was volatile.
"This could go in any direction," he said. |
