The Hindu : Democrats set to kick off Iowa caucuses

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 19, 2004

International

International

Democrats set to kick off Iowa caucuses

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, JAN. 18. With the political season formally set to open tomorrow by way of the Iowa caucuses, the U.S. President, George W. Bush, is finding in a latest CBS-New York Times poll that while he is getting solid marks for his handling of terrorism, there is a lot of scepticism in the manner in which he is going about the domestic priorities and challenges.

Generally, in the realm of handling foreign policy issues, the incumbent Republican President gets an approval rating of 47 per cent with 45 per cent voicing disapproval. Mr. Bush gets a high mark for his handling of terrorism — 68 per cent support the President on this; but only 48 per cent back the President on Iraq and 44 per cent support the handling of the economy. Fifty-one per cent of those polled are disapproving of the manner in which Mr. Bush has handled the economy

The policies of the Bush administration have made the U.S. safer from terrorist attacks, say 68 per cent of those polled; and 64 per cent considered Mr. Bush a strong leader.

On Iraq, 51 per cent of all those polled said that the war in Iraq was not worth the costs; and 49 per cent had opined that Mr. Bush was too quick to get the U.S. involved in a war in that country.

The poll has found that while the people are about evenly divided on whether or not they would support Mr. Bush or any other Democratic candidate, other polls have shown the incumbent President having a double digit lead over any of the Democratic candidate individually matched against him.

Further, the support level of 50 per cent for Mr. Bush would put him in the same position — or perhaps even slightly better — than his father, George H.W. Bush, was in 1992 or Bill Clinton was in 1996.

But what is being pointed out and one that should cause some alarm in the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign team is the slipping of Mr. Bush's support among independent voters.

According to a report, the latest poll numbers on this front show only 45 per cent of the independents backing the President as opposed to nearly 64 per cent approval rating just last month.

The concern is for the simple reason that the President is solidly backed by the Republicans and strongly opposed by the Democrats.

As a result, the White House has realised that the independent voter will be the crucial voting bloc this November 2.

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