President Getting Mid-term Bust, not Boost

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Presidential approval can get a push during the mid-term election campaign season. But amid criticism of the war in Iraq and an unfolding Congressional scandal, President Bush's ratings have stagnated rather than rebounded. According to the most recent results of Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind Poll, only a quarter (26%) of New Jersey’s likely voters think the country is headed in the right direction while nearly two-thirds (64%) continue to say it is "on the wrong track."

Voters seem to hold President Bush responsible for the direction of the country as 70% rate his job performance as "poor" or "only fair." Pushed to say flatly whether they approve or disapprove of the President’s handling of his job, 59% disapprove, while only 34% approve.

A new low of 33% say the US military involvement in Iraq is going "fairly well" or "very well"—down from 41% last October--while 64%, a new high, say the war is going "not too well" or "not well at all," up 6 percentage points from late August. Only a third (33%) say it was the right thing to do to go to war in Iraq, while 59% say it was a mistake.

"By this point in the campaign season, the President and his party should be rebounding," said Peter Woolley, director of the poll, "instead they’re stuck in the doldrums. The White House’s fall campaign strategy has been set out, but is not producing any results."

The PublicMind poll of 514 randomly selected likely voters statewide was conducted by telephone from September 26 through October 2 and has a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points.

Contacts:

Contacts: Peter Woolley 973.670.3239; Dan Cassino 973.896.7072

Radio actuality line: (201) 692-2846.

For more information, please call (201) 692-7032.