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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (59605)	9/9/1999 12:57:00 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 67261

POLL-Voters want both Clintons out of public eye By Alan Elsner, Political Correspondent BOSTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - A clear majority of U.S. voters would like both President Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton to retire from public office and take a lower profile at the end of next year, a Reuters/WHDH poll found on Thursday. The poll of 1,004 likely voters conducted Sept. 6-8 by John Zogby International for Reuters and the Boston television station WHDH found that 54 percent preferred to see both Clintons leave office and lower their profile at the end of the current presidential term, while 40 percent favored the idea of Hillary Clinton serving in the Senate. The first lady is preparing a bid for a Senate seat from New York which will fall vacant at the end of next year. Clinton's second term in the White House ends in January, 2001. The poll, which carried a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points, also found Republican presidential front-runner George W. Bush leading Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic leader, by 50-36 percent in a matchup for next year's election. Bush, the governor of Texas and son of former President George Bush, also held a commanding lead over the rest of the field for the Republican presidential nomination. Almost 60 percent of Republican voters favored Bush. Former Cabinet secretary Elizabeth Dole was second with 12 percent and all other candidates were under 5 percent. Among Democrats, Gore led his sole rival for the party nomination, former Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey, by 55-17 percent with the rest undecided. Bradley formally launched his presidential bid on Wednesday in his Missouri birthplace. Two-thirds of Democrats agreed that Gore "deserved" the party's presidential nomination while nearly half of all voters thought he should be neither penalized nor rewarded for his loyalty to Clinton. A quarter said he should be rewarded while 20 percent said he should be penalized. But the poll showed Gore faced a growing problem of "Clinton fatigue" among voters. "A lot of people seem to be tired of the Clintons and that's not a good sign either for the first lady or for Al Gore," said pollster John Zogby. Asked if they favored a continuation of Clinton administration policies or a change of policy from the next president, 40 percent said they wanted continuity but 50 percent favored a change in direction. "This is the heart of Gore's dilemma: how does he carve out a new direction and a new persona while still remaining loyal to the Clinton legacy?" said Zogby. Gore's weakness also showed up when voters were asked whether they would vote for him or Dole for president. Dole won that matchup by 45 to 37 percent. But Gore beat Arizona Sen. John McCain 43-33 percent and publisher Steve Forbes 45-34 percent. Even in these cases, Gore was well short of winning 50 percent of respondents. A third of the voters said they wanted to see a third party candidate in the race and 42 percent said they would consider voting for such a candidate. The poll showed that some Americans still do not have a clear idea of who Bush is and what he advocated. Asked to name the first thing that came to mind about him, 13 percent said "ex-president," confusing him with his father. Most of the rest had positive things to say about the Texas governor. Looking inside the Gore-Bush numbers, Gore was gaining the support of only 70 percent of Democrats in his matchup against Bush, while Bush was backed by 90 percent of Republicans. Bush led Gore by 22 percentage points among men and by five points among women, confirming that the traditional gender gap still played a role in U.S. politics. In the past two presidential elections, women heavily backed Clinton while men narrowly favored his Republican opponents. Gore was strongest among voters under the age of 30, who are less likely to vote. All other age groups heavily backed Bush. Among independent voters, Bush led Gore 48-26 percent. Bush led Gore among white voters 58-29 percent; blacks supported the vice president by 78-10 percent and Hispanics supported him by 61-36 percent.