Freedom Pays a Political Dividend: Bush's Approval Rating Spikes

The SOTU had something to do with it, but more important were the successful elections in Iraq:

The Iraqi elections that went "better than expected" produced a bump in President Bush's approval rating, according to the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll.

Between January 14 and 16, 51 percent of survey participants expressed approval of Bush's performance as president. But 57 percent of the 1,010 respondents during the February 4 thru 6 poll stated that they approved of how the he does his job.

...

While the responses to some questions -- like how the president is handling the economy and Social Security --- remained within the margin of error or unchanged from a January 7 poll to the one last week -- the most significant changes appeared on issues related to Iraq.

In the January 7 survey, 42 percent of respondents said they approved of how Bush is handling the situation in Iraq, and 56 percent expressed dissatisfaction. But, last week Bush gained 8 percentage points in his approval rating, with 50 percent giving him a nod and 48 percent disapproving.

On the question of whether sending U.S. troops to Iraq was a mistake, 52 percent said "yes" and 47 percent said "no" during the week of January 14. But last week, the numbers flipped with 45 percent saying "yes" and 55 percent saying "no."

Obviously, a lot of hard work remains to be done. But it is comforting the public is paying enough attention to know who was right and who was wrong at least on the one discrete issue of elections in Iraq.

posted by Ace at 06:23 PM

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