Kerry Tied With Bush in Newsweek Poll, Each With 48% Support
March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and U.S. President George W. Bush are tied at 48 percent support each, according to a poll of registered voters by Newsweek magazine.
Bush, 57, has gained 3 percentage points in the past month, the poll said. The previous Newsweek poll showed Kerry, 60, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, with a 48 percent to 45 percent lead. Each survey had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
When independent candidate Ralph Nader, 70, was added to the ballot in the most recent poll, Bush led with 45 percent, to 43 percent for Kerry and 5 percent for the consumer advocate.
The poll, done by Princeton Survey Research Associates, was conducted among 1,006 adults nationwide on March 18-19. That's a week after Bush began running his first campaign ads, which portrayed Kerry as a tax-raiser who would weaken national defense.
By a margin of 36 percent to 30 percent, more Americans said the U.S.-led war on Iraq had increased their risk of suffering from terrorism than those who said it had lessened the risk. An additional 27 percent said it hasn't made a difference.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents said the U.S. had done the right thing by attacking Iraq a year earlier, compared with 37 percent who disagreed.
The U.S. holds its presidential election on Nov. 2. |
