Poll Analysis: Presidential Hopefuls Face Deeply Divided Electorate
According to a new Los Angeles Times poll, the country is as divided as it was in the 2000 election when Republican George W. Bush barely beat Democratic candidate Al Gore.
By Susan Pinkus
Times Poll Director

November 20, 2003

According to a new Los Angeles Times poll, the country is as divided as it was in the 2000 election when Republican George W. Bush barely beat Democratic candidate Al Gore. The country is still divided along partisanship, gender and race lines and issues debating the moral and cultural values of the country. The poll also shows that President Bush, on one hand, is likeable with strong marks for his leadership ability and honesty. And on the other hand, it shows that Americans dislike his policies and a majority don?t think he cares about people like themselves, while favoring the rich.

Two things that will take center stage over the course of the presidential campaign will be the economy and the reconstruction of Iraq. The public is of two minds about the health of the nation?s economy. Americans feel the president has made the country weaker by his policies and the country is not as well off as before Bush took office, but they also feel that in the next six months, the economy will be getting better. The economy is more on the public?s mind than rooting out terrorism or even the ongoing fighting in Iraq. They believe the economy should be the highest priority that the Bush administration should be concentrating on. Also, the public believes the country is seriously off on the wrong track, a turnaround from where Americans thought the country was heading seven months ago when the question was asked. Perhaps because of this and the belief that the war in Iraq is not going as planned and not worth the cost of lives and the money being poured into that country, President Bush?s ratings, although still positive, have declined sharply. When asked if they were more likely to support Bush or the Democratic nominee in 2004, 38% of voters would vote for the president, while 42% of them would vote for a Democratic candidate.