Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Introduction and Summary As George W. Bush makes his first overseas trip as president, he has the backing of the American public on a pair of high-profile security and foreign policy issues. The public favors his call for developing a national missile defense system and feels he is taking the right tack in handling relations […]
Partisan Gap on Missile Defense Opinions on missile defense have remained fairly consistent as the debate has heated up over the past few months. The 51%-38% margin of support for the idea is similar to the results of a survey in February, when a comparable question was asked. In the current poll, nearly one-in-three Americans […]
Commentary by Morton H. Halperin, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations Moderate Public Views Give Officials Great Latitude Policy analysts and politicians generally believe that elections are not won or lost on foreign policy issues any more. Interest groups of one kind or another - economic, ethnic, ideological - may have strong feelings on particular […]
by Andrew Kohut for America Online
Introduction and Summary After three months in office, George W. Bush is doing about as well with the American public as did his predecessors, because Republicans love what they are seeing and Democrats are expressing only modest opposition to his stewardship of the country. Bush’s approval ratings among the GOP faithful are slightly higher than […]
The most striking single statistic is the drop in the amount of coverage of Bush versus Clinton in their early days. The drop-off is across the board—across TV, newspapers and newsweeklies. Network television was down 43%, newspapers 38%. Newsweek magazine alone had 59% fewer stories about Bush in its pages than it carried about Clinton […]
Finances Top Family Problem Economic concerns are weighing on the minds of Americans these days. When asked in an open-ended format to name the biggest problem currently facing them and their families, most Americans (62%) cite financial concerns, and the proportion doing so is up significantly from the mid-1990s. In 1994, 56% named financial concerns […]
Environmental Balancing Act Most Americans (54%) express at least some confidence in Bush’s ability to balance environmental and economic demands, with 21% expressing “a lot” of confidence in the president in this area. This is comparable to how the public viewed Clinton’s environmental leadership. In 1997, 61% had some confidence in Clinton’s ability to balance […]