|
Bush gets surge of support
20/12/2005 10:09 - (SA)
Washington - President George W Bush's support among Americans has picked up sharply in the wake of Iraq's election and a series of aggressive defences of his security policy, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll showed on Monday.
After a long and deep slump, Bush's popularity rebounded steeply in the past month, with 47% of people voicing overall approval for the president, while 52% disapproved, the Washington Post reported on its website.
That compared to just 39% approval in the Post/ABC poll at the beginning of November.
Likewise, there was a surge in support for Bush's handling of Iraq, which had been key to the decline in his popularity over the past year.
In the newest poll, 46% voiced approval for his Iraq management, 10 percentage points up from November.
And in fighting terrorism, a majority of 56% gave Bush support, compared to 48% in November.
The Post noted that the surge in favourable views of Bush's administration came largely from conservatives and Republicans, his traditional support base.
Meanwhile, the newspaper reported, there was little change in the view of Bush among moderates, independents and Democrats.
The surge in Bush's approval comes in the wake of the relatively peaceful national elections in Iraq on December 15.
It also comes during a period in which Bush has made several aggressive public defences of his stance on the US troop presence in Iraq, on the terror-fighting USA Patriot Act and on the explosive issue of Bush's authorisation of wiretaps of US citizens, without first obtaining court approval.
- AFP
|
News
