Kerry leads Bush in new poll Bush's approval numbers dip Monday, February 2, 2004 Posted: 7:45 PM EST (0045 GMT) Sen. John Kerry leads President Bush in a new poll. (CNN) -- Sen. John Kerry, the front-runner among Democrats vying for their party's presidential nomination, leads President Bush in a head-to-head matchup, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina and retired Gen. Wesley Clark also emerge as formidable opponents, according to hypothetical matchups in the poll, which found a decline in Bush's approval numbers. The poll, based on interviews with 1,001 adult Americans, including 562 likely voters, was conducted in the days after the New Hampshire primary. The poll underscores both Kerry's momentum after his wins in New Hampshire and Iowa, and increased favorability among Democrats in general as they dominate political news with their primaries and steady criticism of Bush. The general election is slightly more than nine months away and Bush has yet to launch his campaign in earnest, meaning the poll numbers are all but certain to shift. When the 562 likely voters were asked for their choice from a Bush v. Kerry race, 53 percent of those picked Kerry, and 46 percent favored Bush. When that same group was asked to pick between Edwards and Bush, the numbers were 49 percent for Edwards and 48 percent for Bush. With a Bush/Clark face-off, Bush was favored by 50 percent of those surveyed and Clark, 47 percent. Howard Dean, the onetime front-runner in the Democratic field, had a poorer showing against Bush, 45 percent to 52 percent for the incumbent. The question of choice for president among likely voters had a sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. The margin or error was different for other questions, as some questions were posed to likely voters, others to just Democrats and others to all adults surveyed. Kerry was the overwhelming choice of registered Democrats for the presidential nomination. Support for Kerry as the Democratic nominee stood at 49 percent, compared to 14 percent for Dean and 13 percent for Edwards. The other Democratic candidates were in the single digits. The poll showed Bush's job approval rating at 49 percent among all the adults surveyed, the first time since he became president that his job approval has dipped below 50 percent. A month ago his rating was at 60 percent, as he enjoyed a spike in approval after the capture of Saddam Hussein. A majority of those polled now say they disapprove of Bush's handing of the economy, foreign affairs, the situation in Iraq and health care. The poll also showed the nation evenly divided -- 49 percent to 49 percent -- on the question of whether it was worth going to war in Iraq, marking the first time approval of the war has dropped below 50 percent. However, a majority of those polled -- 54 percent -- said they do not believe Bush deliberately misled the country on whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, while 43 percent said they believe there was deception. Despite the apparent rising fortunes of Democrats, the poll showed Bush enjoyed advantages over his rivals in several areas. For example Bush was seen as a stronger leader than Kerry -- 53 percent to 39 percent --and, despite Kerry's military service in Vietnam, more patriotic than the senator from Massachusetts, 49 percent to 34 percent. And,on the question of Iraq, more Americans trusted Bush than Kerry, 50 percent to 44 percent.
Kerry Leads Dems, Bush In Quinnipiac Poll 11:08 AM EST,February 2, 2004 Associated Press John Kerry leads the race for the Democratic presidential nomination with the support 42 percent of Democrats, according to a national poll released Monday. The Quinnipiac University poll also gave the Massachusetts senator the edge, 51 percent to 42 percent, in a head-to-head race with President Bush. In the race for the nomination, Kerry held a substantial lead over Howard Dean, who received the support of 11 percent of those Democrats surveyed. John Edwards and Wesley Clark each received 10 percent, followed by Joe Lieberman with 6 percent. The poll also gave Bush an approval rating of 48 percent, the first time his approval has dipped below 50 percent in a Quinnipiac poll. Forty-five percent of those surveyed said they disapproved of the job the president is doing. Voters surveyed expressed skepticism regarding Bush's handling of the economy. Despite criticism from some in the Democratic race, however, 52 percent of voters still believe that going to war in Iraq was the right thing to do, compared with 42 percent who do not, according to the poll. The nationwide telephone poll surveyed 1,219 registered voters from Jan.28-31. It had a survey error margin of about 3 percentage points. The survey asked 420 Democrats about the primary, with an error margin of about 5 percent.
Kerry will win. The taller candidate has won ten of the 13 presidential elections since World War II (and that's if you call five-foot-eleven-inch George W. Bush the "winner" over six-foot-one-inch Al Gore, who got more votes). Kerry is 6' 4".
ART!! :eek: Whatcha doin man??? If brother Maverick74 and co (James Sock spect8or pabst and my fave babe Mawreen Dawd!!) get a heart attack... you'll be responsible
Where did they do that poll? In the CNN newsroom? What a joke. Wonder what the result would be if they mentioned that Kerry took more money from corporate lobbyists than any other senator, including every single republican, over the past 15 years? Of course, he can't be bought. Rented maybe. Or maybe those lobbyists just really admired him for being the only guy in the entire country to go to Vietnam. Wait until Kerry's support for furloughs for violent felons in Mass comes out. Remember Willie Horton? Kerry has an unbroken record in the Senate of support for nutcase policies and opposition to the defense of the country. And how funny is it that Clinton sleazeball Terry MacAuliffe is out attacking Bush's National Guard record? Anyone else recall how they said none of that stuff mattered when Clinton the draft dodger was running?