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Politics : WHO IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IN 2004 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (9647)	1/31/2004 8:03:23 PM
From: American Spirit	Respond to of 10965

Bush's popularity rating drops to new low as Kerry extends lead: poll 2 hours, 27 minutes ago Add Politics - AFP to My Yahoo! WASHINGTON (AFP) - President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s popularity rating has dropped to a new low of 49 percent while Senator John Kerry (news - web sites) has extended his lead over rival Democrats vying to face off against Bush in November's US presidential election, according to a Newsweek poll. The poll, released Saturday, found Kerry would win a dust-up with Bush at the polls by 48 percent to 46 percent, however, the poll's three-percentage-point margin of error locks them in a statistical dead-heat. "President Bush's job approval rating is the lowest ever recorded in a Newsweek poll, now down to 49 percent from 50 percent last week," the poll found. Bush's overall popularity rating has fallen from a 71 percent rating recorded by Newsweek just after the fall of Baghdad in April. Thirty-six percent of registered voters said the state of the economy and jobs will be the most important factors in deciding how they place their votes. Healthcare gained the next spot, while only 11 percent of voters cited Iraq (news - web sites). The slight weekly fall in Bush's approval rating came after former chief US weapons inspector David Kay told Congress this past week that the pre-war intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was flawed. However, 55 percent of those polls by Newsweek said they believed Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) possessed banned chemical or biological weapons right before the US-led war began. Forty-nine percent said did not want to see Bush re-elected to a second term, down from 52 percent in last week's poll, and 45 percent said they wanted him re-elected. Kerry, fresh from state primary victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, climbed in voter approval over the other Democratic hopefuls in the Newsweek poll, chalking up 45 percent of the potential Democratic vote, up from 30 percent a week ago. Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean (news - web sites), Kerry's closest rival, languished behind with 14 percent while Senator John Edwards (news - web sites) slipped from second to third place from last week with 11 percent of the vote. Retired General Wesley Clark (news - web sites) and Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut tied for fourth with five percent. Almost two-thirds of Democrats and Democratic-leaners said Kerry was the most likely of all the Democratic candidates to beat Bush if he wins his party's presidential ticket. The poll also found that, overall, 55 percent of voters from what they now know, believe the United States did the right thing in taking military action against Iraq last March. Thirty-nine percent disagreed with the war.