-Caveat Lector-
Voters Want Both Clintons Out Of Public Eye
By Alan Elsner, Political Correspondent
BOSTON (Reuters) - A clear majority of voters would
like both President Clinton and Hillary
Rodham Clinton to retire from public office and take a lower profile at the
end of next year, a Reuters/WHDH poll found
Thursday.
The poll of 1,004 likely voters conducted Sept. 6-8 by John Zogby
International for Reuters and the Boston television
station WHDH found that 54 percent preferred to see both Clintons leave
office and lower their profile at the end of the
current presidential term, while 40 percent favored the idea of Hillary
Clinton serving in the Senate.
The first lady is preparing a bid for a Senate seat from New York which will
fall vacant at the end of next year. Clinton's
second term in the White House ends in January, 2001.
The poll, which carried a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage
points, also found Republican presidential
front-runner George W. Bush leading Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic
leader, by 50-36 percent in a matchup for
next year's election.
Bush, the governor of Texas and son of former President George Bush, also
held a commanding lead over the rest of the
field for the Republican presidential nomination. Almost 60 percent of
Republican voters favored Bush. Former Cabinet
secretary Elizabeth Dole was second with 12 percent and all other candidates
were under 5 percent.
Among Democrats, Gore led his sole rival for the party nomination, former
Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey, by 55-17
percent with the rest undecided. Bradley formally launched his presidential
bid Wednesday in his Missouri birthplace.
Two-thirds of Democrats agreed that Gore ``deserved'' the party's
presidential nomination while nearly half of all voters
thought he should be neither penalized nor rewarded for his loyalty to
Clinton. A quarter said he should be rewarded
while 20 percent said he should be penalized.
But the poll showed Gore faced a growing problem of ''Clinton fatigue''
among voters.
``A lot of people seem to be tired of the Clintons and that's not a good
sign either for the first lady or for Al Gore,'' said
pollster John Zogby.
Asked if they favored a continuation of Clinton administration policies or a
change of policy from the next president, 40
percent said they wanted continuity but 50 percent favored a change in
direction.
``This is the heart of Gore's dilemma: how does he carve out a new direction
and a new persona while still remaining loyal
to the Clinton legacy?'' said Zogby.
Gore's weakness also showed up when voters were asked whether they would
vote for him or Dole for president. Dole
won that matchup by 45 to 37 percent.
But Gore beat Arizona Sen. John McCain 43-33 percent and publisher Steve
Forbes 45-34 percent. Even in these
cases, Gore was well short of winning 50 percent of respondents.
A third of the voters said they wanted to see a third party candidate in the
race and 42 percent said they would consider
voting for such a candidate.
The poll showed that some Americans still do not have a clear idea of who
Bush is and what he advocated. Asked to
name the first thing that came to mind about him, 13 percent said
''ex-president,'' confusing him with his father. Most of
the rest had positive things to say about the Texas governor.
Looking inside the Gore-Bush numbers, Gore was gaining the support of only
70 percent of Democrats in his matchup
against Bush, while Bush was backed by 90 percent of Republicans.
Bush led Gore by 22 percentage points among men and by five points among
women, confirming that the traditional
gender gap still played a role in U.S. politics. In the past two
presidential elections, women heavily backed Clinton while
men narrowly favored his Republican opponents.
Gore was strongest among voters under the age of 30, who are less likely to
vote. All other age groups heavily backed
Bush. Among independent voters, Bush led Gore 48-26 percent.
Bush led Gore among white voters 58-29 percent; blacks supported the vice
president by 78-10 percent and Hispanics
supported him by 61-36 percent.
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