Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lurqer who wrote (41216)	4/3/2004 2:25:44 PM
From: lurqer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Bush ratings on terror fight hit new lows, polls suggest Wayne Washington The two-week focus on how the White House handled pre-Sept. 11 warnings about Al Qaeda has dropped President Bush's antiterrorism ratings to new lows, raising the political stakes of national security adviser Condoleezza Rice's testimony next week before the commission investigating the attacks. National security has been Bush's biggest reelection selling point -- earning him far higher marks than his handling of domestic issues, such as health care and the economy -- but a Gallup poll released this week indicated that support for the president on fighting terrorism has dropped to an all-time low. Just 58 percent support Bush's handling of terrorism, a rating that is down from 65 percent in December and a high of 86 percent in March of 2002. Other polls suggest Bush is slightly trailing or barely ahead of his likely Democratic rival this fall, Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, in head-to-head matchups. Rice is scheduled to testify Thursday. "Generally, she's a very good spokeswoman for the administration," said Mike Franc, vice president for government relations at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. "She's in a position to explain what [Bush has] done since 9/11 and put that in the context of what the administration knew before." A Republican congressional staff member said the administration will make sure Rice is thoroughly prepped for her testimony, which White House officials hope will prove to be an effective counterweight to the comments of Bush's former counterterrorism chief, Richard A. Clarke, who accused the administration of failing to heed warnings before Sept. 11, 2001, that Al Qaeda was about to strike. "The White House staff will have combed through previous testimony to help her prepare," said the staff member, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "It's not like there will be any great surprise to what the questions will be." Rice's spokesman, Sean McCormack, said she won't participate in mock hearings. "You have to remember, she's already met with the commission before," McCormack said. "She'll probably review materials and update herself on what the commission has already learned." Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill said they expect that the commission will ask Rice a series of questions ranging from how the administration prioritized threats to the nation, what specific plans it had to deal with Al Qaeda, and what dangers Clinton administration officials warned her about as they were leaving office. Clarke has told the commission that the administration did not act on his plan to attack Al Qaeda and its supporters in Afghanistan, the Taliban. Rice has strongly denied that the White House ignored the terrorist threat. The Bush reelection campaign rejected any notion that Rice's testimony could damage the president. "The president led the nation after Sept. 11 with great strength," campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said. "The American people know full well the president's record in the war on terror." Some critics of the administration, however, see Rice's testimony as a big trouble spot for the administration. "It's hard to imagine that she will come out of this OK," said Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive, a liberal magazine. "She was inattentive to the Al Qaeda threat. The information was there. She either was unaware of it, or she ignored it." Bush's support has not eroded more because Americans are giving the president the benefit of the doubt, Rothschild has said. "People think, `OK, he might not be that bright of a guy, but he was facing some serious problems when he came into office,' " he said. "People give him the benefit of a thousand doubts." Franc said Americans are simply unwillingly to blame Bush for the attacks. "The American people are predisposed to think that Bill Clinton's eight years count more than George Bush's 7 1/2 months," Franc said. The White House had rejected repeated calls to make Rice available to the commission, but Bush agreed after Clarke's accusations became public. Rice led the administration's fierce counterattack to Clark's contentions, conducting a series of television interviews attacking his credibility. Gallup asked voters whether they believe Clarke's allegations or Bush's assertion that his administration did all it could, and found that they were evenly split. Voters responding to polls conducted for the Los Angeles Times, CBS News, and Gallup all suggest that Bush's antiterrorism ratings have dropped. The polls indicate that Republicans remain firmly behind the president and Democrats continue to disapprove of his handling of terrorism. But independents, a crucial voting bloc this fall, told pollsters that they are less approving of Bush's handling of terrorism than they were before. boston.com lurqer