WASHINGTON – President Bush’s overall approval rating stood at 40 percent, with 58 percent disapproving, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found. The results of the survey, conducted between Friday and Tuesday, were a slight improvement over his marks in the spring and comparable to the findings in other recent surveys.
The poll provided several indications of the political opposition he faces and the polarizing nature of his presidency.
Discontent with Bush’s leadership was found on a variety of key fronts, including the war in Iraq (60 percent disapproval) and the economy (59 percent disapproval).
A poll question about immigration reflected the political complexity of the issue and the extent to which Bush’s involvement in it seems to color the public’s view.
Bush has challenged his party’s conservative base by backing a plan that would create a guest-worker plan that put most of the illegal immigrants already in the U.S. on a path to citizenship.
On Capitol Hill, many Republicans oppose that approach, while most Democrats back it. But asked to rate Bush’s handling of immigration issues, 67 percent of the poll’s Democratic respondents said they disapproved, while 24 percent expressed approval; among Republicans, 55 percent backed the president, while 36 percent disapproved. Half of those identifying themselves as conservatives, however, said they disapproved of Bush’s handling of immigration, while about four in 10 supported him.
Bush’s recent veto of legislation that would have allowed federal funding for embryonic stem cell research was opposed by 58 percent of those surveyed, including nearly one in three Republicans.
The poll gave Democrats an 11-percentage-point advantage when registered voters were asked which party they would prefer to win in their congressional district. But the survey also offered evidence of political troubles for Democrats.
For instance, Democrats trailed Republicans, 34 percent to 30 percent, when poll respondents were asked which party they trusted to do a better job protecting the country against terrorism. And 50 percent expressed approval of Bush’s handling of the war on terrorism.
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