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l/transition_polls_4.html
Wednesday January 17 9:30 PM ET
Poll: Americans Don't Trust Clinton
By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans don't really trust President Clinton (news - web
sites), and they don't think much of his morals, says a new poll. But a
strong majority surely think he's done a good job running the country.
An ABC News-Washington Post poll released Wednesday night showed that 65
percent approve of his job performance, about the same as the job approval
rating Ronald Reagan had at the end of his term. They had the highest
end-of-term rating of any president in the last half-century.
The approval of Clinton's job performance has tracked closely with public
perception of economic conditions. As the economic recovery began to gain
momentum in the summer of 1996, the president's approval rating crept above
60 percent.
The public's view of Clinton is sharply divided along partisan lines, with
93 percent of Democrats approving of his job performance and only 32 percent
of Republicans. Clinton gets positive marks from different groups. Six in 10
Republicans and conservatives approve of his handling of the economy.
Three-fourths overall approve of his handling of the economy and of race
relations, while almost that many approve of his handling of foreign
affairs. Only half approve of his handling of health care, and six in 10
approve of his handling of the welfare system.
As he prepares to leave office Saturday, Americans are decidedly less upbeat
on personal measures of Clinton. Three-fourths say he does not have high
moral and ethical standards, and almost that many say he is not trustworthy.
Two-thirds said he is a strong leader, and half say he will be thought of as
an outstanding or above-average president. And six in 10 say he should not
be charged with a crime for lying under oath about his relationship with
Monica Lewinsky.
People remain sharply divided on whether Clinton should have been impeached,
with just over half saying he should not have been. They also are split on
whether they have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the president. The
ABC-Post poll of 1,513 adults was taken Jan. 11-15 and has an error margin
of 2.5 percentage points.
Looking ahead, half of Americans said they are at least somewhat optimistic
about the next four years, according to another new poll, as President-elect
Bush prepares to take office at the same time that confidence in the economy
is slipping.
About four in 10 say they're confident Bush has the right goals and policies
as well as the right personal characteristics to be president, according to
the NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday evening. Almost
that many say they are only somewhat confident he has those goals and
characteristics.
Just over half, 53 percent, said the conditions faced by Bush will be more
difficult than those that faced Bill Clinton when he became president in
1993. Roughly the same number felt that Clinton faced more difficult
circumstances that Bush's father did when he became president in 1988.
The NBC-Journal poll of 1,018 adults was taken Saturday through Monday and
has an error margin of 3 percentage points.
Republican polling done the day after the presidential election, found that
voters who backed Bush did so both because of his personality and his
agenda. According to the GOP poll, more people thought Bush was
intelligent - a question raised about him during the campaign - than thought
Democratic nominee Al Gore (news - web sites) was honest, one of the major
criticisms of the Democrat.
And the poll found that Gore won the last week of the election campaign
``primarily because the Democrats trashed George Bush, especially in the
African-American community and made black voters vote against George Bush
rather than for Al Gore,'' said GOP pollster Whit Ayres of Atlanta, who
conducted the national poll of 1,200 voters on Nov. 8 and presented it
Wednesday to the Republican National Committee (news - web sites). That poll
also had a 3 percentage point error margin.
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