Poll: Bush's approval rating slips to 44 percent

By Richard Keil
Bloomberg News

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The percentage of Americans who think the nation is headed in the right direction is at 33 percent, an eight-year low, and 61 percent said they are dissatisfied with "the way things are going in this country," the Pew survey said.

For the first time, a majority of 51 percent said the Iraq war was going poorly. Forty-six percent of those polled said the war was going well, down from 70 percent in January.

The new poll of 1,800 adults was conducted May 3-9, after publication of photographs of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison. About 76 percent of those surveyed said they had seen photos of prisoner abuses at the prison.

In an election matchup, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry leads Bush by 50 percent to 45 percent, the poll shows.

"It is a close race, and at this stage it is all about feelings about the incumbent, and Bush has been hurt by recent events in Iraq," said Carroll Doherty, editor of the Pew poll. "Until there is some good news in terms of organizing a government, or the casualty count goes down, this thing is going to be a major problem for the president."

Kerry's lead over Bush is 46 percent to 43 percent when independent candidate Ralph Nader is included. The poll has a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.

Bush's approval rating among independent voters declined to 44 percent from 55 percent in February, Pew said.

"These numbers are very discouraging for an incumbent, particularly in an election year," said Mark Rozell, a government professor at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. "The question is whether this (prison-abuse) scandal gets worse and continues to erode Bush's support."

"The current international environment is bad for Bush, and the poll numbers reflect growing pessimism and concerns," said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report. "He'd likely lose if the election were today. But we are still five months out, and circumstances could be very different then."

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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