NEWSWEEK Poll: Bush’s Tax-Cut Plan Gets High Marks Most Americans approve of the job he’s done so far, but his rating is less than for most post-war presidents

The president reads a book about Booker T. Washington to third-grade school children in Washington on Friday NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE

Feb. 10 — After three full weeks in office, 52 percent of Americans approve of the way George W. Bush is handling himself as president, according to a new NEWSWEEK poll. But that rating is below the average of 62 percent recorded for previous post-war presidents at about the same point.

ACCORDING TO GALLUP polls taken at the time, John F. Kennedy had the highest approval rating early on (72 percent), followed by Dwight D. Eisenhower (68 percent), Jimmy Carter (66 percent), George Bush (63 percent), Richard M. Nixon (60 percent), and Ronald Reagan (55 percent). Only Bill Clinton scored below Bush, with a ranking of 51 percent eight years ago. While the media’s conventional wisdom is that Bush has done better than expected during his first few weeks in office, most of those polled (61 percent) judge Bush’s performance as what they expected.

While the media’s conventional wisdom is that Bush has done better than expected during his first few weeks in office, most of those polled (61 percent) judge Bush’s performance as what they expected. About one-quarter (24 percent) say he is doing better than they thought he would; 7 percent say he is doing worse than expected. Bush’s tax cut proposal won broad support from Americans, with 67 percent saying they approve of his plan to cut taxes across the board. Still, when asked more specifically about national priorities, 65 percent say they favor using the federal surplus to pay down debt and protect Social Security and Medicare. Just 28 percent say they want the surplus used to cut taxes. And given some evidence of weakness in the economy, 52 percent of Americans think Bush should compromise in favor of more limited cuts, while 37 percent want to “continue to push hard for across-the-board tax cuts.” Most of those polled say they don’t expect the tax cuts to have a major stimulative effect: Fifty-four percent said the effect on the economy will be “minor,” 24 percent predict that it will be “major.” Bush also won high marks for his education-reform proposals, with 73 percent of those polled saying they approve of the plan. And the president’s proposal to use federal funds to support social services run by faith-based organizations also polled well: 65 percent say they approve of the idea. Some of Bush’s initial initiatives failed to do as well, however. The White House plan to open up some protected Alaskan wilderness areas for oil exploration won approval from just 43 percent of those polled; 48 percent disapproved of the proposal. And only 42 percent of Americans favor Bush’s executive order blocking all U.S. funding to overseas family planning groups that offer abortion counseling. Fifty percent say they disapprove of the plan. For this NEWSWEEK poll, Princeton Survey Research Associates interviewed 1,000 adults by telephone on Feb. 8 and Feb. 9. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. © 2001 Newsweek, Inc.

High marks on 'W' report card - Poll: 52% approve of performance, 67% like tax-cut plan

-- Ain't Gonna Happen (Not Here Not@ever.com), February 11, 2001

Answers

Yep, the repugs are still manning the phone banks and spamming the on-line polls. I really should grab one of their mass e-mails alerting their different groups to polls they want to sway in their favor.

But I will let anyone who wants proof of this to go sign up on one of the repug mail lists themselves so they can get spammed with the garbage that gets sent.

-- Cherri (jessam5@home.com), February 11, 2001.

This has just gotta bring back memories. Bad results are PROOF people don't like Bush, good results are PROOF the polls are rigged! Isn't this how y2k was PROVED to be an unavoidable catastrophe? If Bush appoints republicans, this is PROOF he's an extremist so we're all doomed. If he appoints democrats, this is PROOF he doesn't know what he's doing, so we're all doomed. If he's a clumsy boor, it's PROOF that he's an idiot and we're all doomed. If he's polite and courteous, this is PROOF his priorities are wrong and we're all doomed. Heads I win, tails you lose.

Hey Cherri, remember back when the nutballs based their facts on their conclusions and not the other way around? Jerks, weren't they?

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), February 11, 2001.

After having finished a full 8 years as president, Clinton left office with the highest overall rating in history ever given by the people to a president of the United States of America.

-- Billy Boy #1 Champion, The King Stud, Excelsior, Par Excellence, A Genius Visionary, God of Planet Earth (read it @ and weep. rightwing bozos), February 11, 2001.

Watch as ‘Billy Boy’s’ approval ratings plummet into the abyss in the next few weeks. Diane Fienstien, well-known liberal mealy-mouth was on CNN this morning trying to distance herself from Clinton over the Marc Rich pardon. This is just the beginning of the fall of the House of Clinton. So, ‘read it @ and weep’, are you in?

-- Barry (bchbear863@cs.com), February 11, 2001.