Bush Drops Among Uncommitted Voters

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Bush Drops Among Uncommitted Voters
Fri, 09-17-2004 - 3:05pm
Bush Ratings Drop Among Uncommitted Voters, Annenberg Poll Says

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Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush's approval rating declined to 44 percent from 56 percent among undecided voters since the Republican National Convention, a poll by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center found.

Bush, 58, leads Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry in polls after the Aug. 30-Sept. 2 convention. His favorable ratings on key issues in the Annenberg poll fell among voters who haven't decided whom to support or who aren't committed to a candidate.

``On a number of points, Bush lost ground on persuadable voters'' as the convention faded into memory, said Adam Clymer, the Philadelphia-based center's political director.

Bush's strength remains the war on terror: 54 percent of registered voters polled Sept. 3-12 said the president would do a better job than Kerry fighting terrorism; 36 percent picked Kerry, 60, a four-term Massachusetts senator. Among uncommitted voters, 47 percent said Bush would do a better job fighting terrorism and 23 percent picked Kerry.

The poll found 32 percent of uncommitted, or ``persuadable,'' voters approved of Bush's handling of the economy and 63 percent disapproved. In August, 39 percent approved and 54 percent disapproved. Bush's approval rating among these voters dipped from 56 percent in August to 44 percent in September.

The September survey of 2,385 registered voters had a margin of error of 2 percentage points. There were 448 persuadable voters in the sample; the margin of error for them was 5 percentage points.

In an earlier survey of 5,146 registered voters Aug. 9-29, before the Republican convention, the margin of error was 1 percentage point. That sample included 926 persuadable voters, which had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

The president's ratings among registered voters changed little after the convention, the poll found. Fifty-two percent approved of Bush's performance in office in September, compared with 53 percent in August. Forty-five percent approved of his handling of the economy this month, compared with 46 percent a month earlier.

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Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.