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In the aftermath of the Dubai ports deal, President Bush's approval rating has hit a new low and his image for honesty and effectiveness has been damaged. Yet the public uncharacteristically has good things to say about the role that Congress played in this high-profile Washington controversy. Most Americans (58%) believe Congress acted appropriately in strenuously opposing the deal, while just 24% say lawmakers made too much of the situation. While there is broad support for the way Congress handled the dispute, more Americans think Democratic leaders showed good judgment on the ports issue than say the same about GOP leaders (by 30%-20%). The new Pew survey underscores the public's alarm over the prospect that an Arab-owned company could have operated US ports. Fully 41% say they paid very close attention to news about the debate, which is unusually high interest for a Washington story and is only slightly lower than the number tracking Iraq war news very closely (43%). There was broad opposition to the proposed deal from across the political spectrum, including two-to-one disapproval among conservative Republicans (56%-27%). Bush's overall approval measure stands at 33%, the lowest rating of his presidency. Bush's job performance mark is now about the same as the ratings for Democratic and Republican congressional leaders (34% and 32%, respectively), which showed no improvement in spite of public approval of the congressional response to the ports deal. The president's ratings for handling of several specific issues, particularly terrorism, have also declined sharply. Just 42% now approve of Bush's job in handling terrorist threats, an 11-point drop since February. In January 2005, as Bush was starting his second term, 62% approved of his handling of terrorist threats. Bush's personal image also has weakened noticeably, which is reflected in people's one-word descriptions of the president. Honesty had been the single trait most closely associated with Bush, but in the current survey "incompetent" is the descriptor used most frequently (See pp.
The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted among 1,405 adults from March 8-12, finds no evidence of a public backlash against foreign commercial and economic ties in the wake of the ports deal. A narrow majority (53%) has a negative view of foreign investors owning US companies. But that is significantly less than the 70% expressing the same opinion in 1989, when high-profile acquisitions of US firms by Japanese companies provoked widespread concern. Moreover, by 53%-36% more Americans view foreign companies investing in the United States as a good thing; there are no significant partisan differences on this issue. Two-thirds of Americans (66%) believe free trade is good for the United States, which is largely unchanged since 2000. However, the public continues to have an overwhelmingly negative view of "outsourcing" jobs by American businesses. About seven-in-ten (71%) say the practice is bad because it sends good jobs overseas, while 20% think it is good for the US because it keeps costs down.
The survey finds that the falloff in the president's support since the start of his second term includes a significant decline in support among Republicans. Overall, half of Americans approved of Bush's overall job performance in January 2005, while 43% disapproved. Today, just 33% approve compared with 57% who disapprove. In January 2005, Bush earned a lofty 89% approval from members of his own party, but that has declined to 73% in the current survey. Among independents, the number approving of Bush's job performance has fallen from 47% in January 2005 to 26% today; and Bush's support among Democrats, already quite low, has fallen by about half since the start of his second term (from 17% to 9%). Core Supporters Less Satisfied with Bush A more detailed portrait of the falloff in Bush approval shows significant declines among groups who had been the president's strongest supporters. In January 2005, conservative Republicans approved of the president by a margin of 94% to 3%. While still overwhelmingly supportive, today just 78% of conservative Republicans approve while 16% disapprove. Support from moderate and liberal Republicans has dropped by about the same amount, from 82% to 65% today.
Many people who voted for Bush in the 2004 election are more critical of his performance. Currently, 68% of Bush voters approve of his performance, while 22% disapprove. Shortly after the election Bush voters approved of his performance by a margin of 92% to 4%. White evangelical Christians were solidly behind the president throughout his first term in office, but that support has waned over the past 15 months. Currently, just 54% of white evangelicals approve of the president's job in office, while 36% disapprove. Bush's support has also dropped among people who attend church each week or more frequently. According to post-election exit polls conducted by the National Election Pool, these voters backed Bush over Kerry by a 61%-38% margin. But today more disapprove (46%) than approve (42%) of his performance. Even among people who say that the war in Iraq was the right decision, support for the president has declined. Today, 30% of people who believe that the use of force in Iraq was the right decision disapprove of the president's overall job performance, up from just 14% in January 2005. Job approval among Iraq war supporters has fallen from 81% to 58% over this time span.
Congress has drawn bipartisan praise from the American public for its response to the possible transfer of US port operations to a United Arab Emirates company. Nearly two-thirds of Democrats (68%), and roughly half each of independents (53%) and Republicans (49%) said Congress acted appropriately, though a third of Republicans felt too much was made of the issue. Democratic leaders fared somewhat better than Republicans in this debate, based mostly on the support of their own partisans. Overall, three-in-ten say they thought Democratic leaders showed better judgment on this issue, while 20% favored the Republican leaders. Only 38% of Republicans favored the way GOP leaders handled the issue, compared with 54% of Democrats who favored the job their leaders did. Independents were more divided (29% favored how Democratic leaders handled the issue, 20% Republicans), while half saw no difference between the parties' performance. But No Boost in Approval While members of Congress may have averted widespread criticism in this case, there is no evidence that their stand against the Dubai ports deal improved either party's public image. Comparable percentages say they approve of the job Republican leaders (32%) and Democratic leaders (34%) are doing both figures are unchanged from January and have not moved significantly in more than six months. While DP World, the United Arab Emirates company involved in the deal, agreed on March 9 to transfer all operations at US ports to an American entity, 38% of Americans do not think that this is a satisfactory solution to the issue, and another 16% aren't sure how they feel about it. This dissatisfaction is strongest among the three-quarters of Americans who opposed the deal originally, 44% of whom are not satisfied with the current solution, while 45% are satisfied. Among the minority who approved of the original deal, most see this as a satisfactory solution by a 66%-27% margin.
Despite public support for scuttling the ports deal, most Americans are either very (24%) or somewhat (34%) concerned that America may have angered important allies in the Middle East by opposing this deal. This concern crosses party lines, with Democrats, Republicans and independents expressing comparable levels of concern. This consideration was clearly a factor for the minority of Americans who supported allowing the original deal to go through. Though only 14% took this position, they are twice as likely as the majority who opposed the deal to be very concerned about how this will affect US interests in the Middle East, and 77% are at least somewhat concerned in this regard. Foreign...
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