Two weeks before the Nov. 2 Election Day, American voters hold a sharply
critical view of President George W. Bush's record in office, but they have
strong reservations about Senator John Kerry, leaving the presidential race in a
tie, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll published on Tuesday.
Bush's job approval rating was at 44 percent, one of the lowest during his
tenure, and a majority of voters said they disapproved the way he had handled
the economy and the war in Iraq, and that his tax cuts had favored the wealthy.
Voters said that Kerry would do a better job of preserving Social Security,
creating more jobs and ending the war in Iraq. But a majority of Americans
continued to see Kerry as an untrustworthy politician who would say what he
thought people wanted to hear. More than half respondents said they considered
him liberal.
The poll found that the two candidates each drawing 46 percent of all
registered voters in a head-to-head race. Among likely voters in a two-way race,
Bush had 47 percent, with 46 percent forKerry.
The poll surveyed 1,048 adults, including 931 registered voters,last Thursday
through Sunday after Bush and Kerry had the last of their three debates, and had
a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
A new Washington Post poll published on Tuesday, however, found Bush's job
approving rating at 54 percent, and the president was holding a slender lead
over Kerry, 50 percent to 47 percent, with independent candidate Nader getting 1
percent of the likely votes.
The poll showed that while Bush had gained ground against Kerry in the days
after the final debate last Wednesday, his current lead, which was within the
survey's margin of sampling error, was smaller than the advantage he enjoyed
heading into the debates, foreshadowing a fierce battle over the next two weeks.
Among registered voters, Bush led by a single percentage point in the latest
poll. In 13 battleground states, the poll showed it was Kerry with the lead, 50
percent to 46 percent.
The survey, which canvassed 2,402 adults, including 2,130 self-described
registered voters and 1,656 likely voters from last Thursday to Sunday and had a
margin of error of three percentage points, suggested that the economy and Iraq
were slowly emerging as the top two voting concerns while concerns about
terrorism might be fading slightly.
