Bush's rating falls to lowest point: poll

The job approval rating for US President George W. Bush has fallen to the lowest level of his presidency, according to a new New York Times/CBS News poll published on Tuesday.

The survey showed Bush's approval rating at 42 percent, the lowest such figure in a Times/CBS News survey since the beginning of Bush's presidency in January 2001, and 51 percent of the respondents said they disapprove of his job performance.

The poll also found that nearly 40 percent of Americans said they do not have an opinion about Senator John Kerry, the likely Democratic presidential nominee.

Americans were more likely to believe that Bush would do a better job than Kerry in steering the nation through a foreign crisis and protecting it from future terrorist attacks, but support for Bush's abilities in those areas has declined in recent months, according to the poll.

The poll showed Americans have stiffened their opposition to the Iraq war, worried that the invasion could invite domestic terrorist attacks and were skeptical about whether the White House has been fully truthful about the war or about abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison.

A majority of respondents in the poll, conducted before Monday's transfer of power to an interim Iraqi government, said the war was not worth its cost in American lives and that the Bush administration did not have a clear plan to restore order to Iraq.

But 54 percent of the respondents said that the United States should remain in Iraq "as long as it takes," while 40 percent said the United States should withdraw "as soon as possible."

Forty-five percent said they have an unfavorable opinion of Bush himself, again the most negative measure the Times/CBS Poll has found since he took office. And 57 percent said the country is going in the wrong direction.

Nationwide, Kerry has the support of 45 percent of registered voters, with Bush supported by 44 percent. In a three-way race, Bush would lead Kerry by 43 percent to 42 percent, with 5 percent for Ralph Nader, who is running as an independent.

In the 18 states viewed by both parties as the most competitive, the race was equally tight. Forty-five percent of the voters in those states said they would support Kerry, and 43 percent said they would back Bush.

The nationwide poll of 1,053 adults, including 875 registered voters, was taken June 23 to June 27, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Source: Xinhua