Sixty-one percent of those polled say they approve of the way the president is handling his job, down 4 points from the beginning of May, when Bush first announced that major military action in Iraq had ended, and down a full 10 percent from mid-April, when Baghdad first fell to U.S. troops. In the early months of 2003, prior to the beginning of the war, Bush’s ratings had fluctuated between 53 percent and 61 percent.
While most Americans approve of how the Bush administration is handling the situation in Iraq–65 percent–those ratings have fallen 4 points in the past four weeks. And while critics of the administration question the accuracy of U.S. intelligence before the war about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, 72 percent say they continue to believe that Iraq was in possession of the weapons before the war began.
The majority of Americans–57 percent–do not believe that the Bush administration intentionally misled the public about its evidence; 36 percent believe the public was misled. Fifty-four percent don’t believe that the Bush administration misunderstood the intelligence it had; 36 percent think that was the case.
The majority of Americans remain anxious about terrorism. Of those polled, 85 percent believe that another terrorist attack on U.S. soil is very or somewhat likely, 3 points higher than the days immediately following September 11.
Meanwhile, passage of the president’s $350 billion tax cut this week gave him a 4 point boost–to 51 percent–in his ratings on tax policy. Still, many more Americans approve of Bush’s handling of the war on terror (72 percent) than of domestic issues such as the economy (46 percent) and health care (40 percent).
The NEWSWEEK poll was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates, which interviewed by telephone 1,009 adults, aged 18 and older on May 29 and 30, 2003. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
