Peter Hart ran a
focus group of non-partisans on C-Span. News story is
here . Contrast with
College Poll
Compared to the general population college students are more likely to:
- Give the President a positive job rating
- Express trust in the President
- Be more supportive of the President in a generic match-up with a Democrat.
At the same time, compared to the general population college students are more likely to:
- Be critical of Iraq policy
- Think Bush lied about Iraq
- Be more supportive of pulling some or all troops out.
In both cases (C-Span and College Poll), average citizens have grave doubts about Dubya's policies and yet support the president because "leadership" trumps "lying". What's that mean?
I think it means folks are still traumatized by those towers coming down, remember Bush with the bullhorn a few days later talking to the firemen, and haven't really paid attention to much else since then. They need to feel safe, and like the idea that Bush stands for killing anyone or anything that hurts Americans... even if a few mistakes are made along the way. Forget about rule of law, this is frontier justice, Texas style.
Voters' talk shows Bush retains support
By Dick Polman
Inquirer Staff Writer
Douglas Grunklee might be the Democratic Party's worst nightmare.
An independent voter and Catholic school teacher, Grunklee complains that President Bush "lied to get us into Iraq," that he is "allowing too much corruption," that he is "taking care of the top one or two percent" of rich people at the expense of everyone else, that his tax cuts have not stoked the economy, and that his attorney general, John Ashcroft, is "crushing the Constitution."
Grunklee's preferred candidate for 2004? President Bush.
The complex national mood was on full display the other night when 12 citizens representing a cross-section of political opinion met as a focus group in an Exton, Chester County, office park under the guidance of Democratic pollster Peter Hart. By the time they finished two hours later, it was clear that even though Bush hasn't closed the sale for a second term, his Democratic rivals have barely mustered a decent pitch of their own.
These were not the kind of people who inhale politics and subsist on C-Span. These were homemakers and engineers, sales reps and investment advisers, people who get their political news on the fly - as the majority of the electorate does - and they live in a bellwether congressional district where Al Gore beat Bush three years ago by less than one percentage point.
Their sentiments closely tracked the national polls. They are restive about the economy and Iraq, and spooked about another terrorist attack at home. They lament the loss of American jobs, and they are contemptuous about the Department of Homeland Security's color codes. They see Bush as life-size and fallible, but they question the credentials of those who want to replace him - particularly the Washington insiders who serve on Capitol Hill.
(...)
