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Bush's job-approval rating climbs back above 50%
Fri Aug 13, 7:11 AM ET Add Top Stories - USATODAY.com to My Yahoo!
By Judy Keen, USA TODAY
President Bush (news - web sites)'s job-approval rating, a key indicator of an incumbent's chance of being re-elected, has turned upward, the Gallup Poll finds.
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The share of Americans who say they approve of the job Bush is doing inched over the 50% mark to 51%. No president who was at or above 50% at this point in an election year has lost.
Matthew Dowd, Bush's campaign strategist, said, "It looks like the American public is not near as pessimistic as Sen. Kerry is."
Bush's job-approval rating hit its low point, 46%, in May.
The poll finds the presidential race essentially tied: Bush leads Kerry 48%-46% among likely voters; independent Ralph Nader (news - web sites) has 3%. The difference between Bush and Kerry is within the poll's error margin of +/{ndash}4 percentage points.
"We've said all along it's going to be a tight race," said Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton.
The presidential race is as intense and combative now as it usually is in October of election years.
On Thursday, Bush charged his rival with turning a contentious environmental issue here into "a political poker chip."
In his 2000 campaign, Bush said "science, not politics," would determine whether he designated Nevada's Yucca Mountain as a depository for nuclear waste. As president, Bush approved the designation, recommended by the Energy Department, and Nevada opponents cried foul.
Kerry, in Nevada on Tuesday, said Bush broke his 2000 campaign promise. Kerry has voted for legislation that included provisions to allow nuclear dumps at Yucca, but in direct votes on whether to ship waste there, he voted no.
"My opponent's trying to turn Yucca Mountain into a political poker chip," Bush said. "He says he's strongly against Yucca here in Nevada, but he voted for it several times, and so did his running mate. ... If they're going to change, one day they may change again. I think you need straight talk."
Bush spoke at a training facility of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, one of the few unions to support his tax cuts and other policies.
Later, in an interview on CNN's Larry King Live in Los Angeles, Bush declined to condemn a TV ad from at group of Vietnam War veterans questioning whether Kerry earned his Purple Hearts and other awards. "I haven't seen the ad, but what I do condemn is these unregulated, soft-money expenditures by very wealthy people. And they've said some bad things about me," he said. "I guess they're saying bad things about him."
Bush defended his decision to stay in a Florida classroom for several minutes on Sept. 11, 2001, after an aide told him about the terrorist attacks. Last week, Kerry said he would have told the students he needed to leave.
"I was collecting my thoughts," Bush said. "I made the decision there that we would let this part of the program finish, and then I would calmly stand up and thank the teacher and thank the children and go take care of business."
Bush was in Los Angeles for a party fundraiser. He shared a stage with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites), who joked that he is organizing bodybuilders and "girly men" for Bush.
In an interview in the Los Angeles Times, Schwarzenegger said he's rethinking his insistence that he wouldn't campaign for Bush outside the state. "If there's a place, one place where they want to pop me in, this makes sense for me," Schwarzenegger said.
The Bushes had a private visit with former first lady Nancy Reagan at her home in Bel Air, Calif. |
