Bush, Congress get poor grades: Reuters poll

WASHINGTON: Most US voters remain deeply unhappy with President George W. Bush and Congress and give them negative marks for their handling of economic and foreign policy, according to a ReutersZogby poll released on Wednesday.   

The poll found nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track and give Bush's job performance a bad grade. An even bigger majority of 83 percent say the Democratic-controlled Congress is only doing a fair or poor job.   

"The American people are in a foul mood right now and there is no sign of improvement," said pollster John Zogby.

"They may be going on vacation this month, but they are coming back to the same old thing."   

The bleak assessment of Bush and Congress, similar to their ratings last month, could be a danger signal for both parties heading into the November 2008 election campaign.   

"Americans could simply be in an anti-incumbent and anti-institutional mood," Zogby said.

"Right now, nobody gets good marks."   

The national survey of 1,020 likely voters, taken Aug. 9 through Aug. 11, found 67 per cent ranked Bush's performance as fair or poor, with just 32 per cent ranking it as excellent or good.   

That is down slightly from the 34 per cent who gave him positive marks last month, but still above his low rating of 30 per cent in March amid continued chaos in Iraq and partisan gridlock in Washington.   

The dismal ratings for Congress have worsened since Democrats won power in the 2006 elections. Fifteen per cent rate the performance of Congress as excellent or good, worse than the 23 per cent who gave the Republican-led Congress positive marks in its final days last October.   

Americans also have little faith in US economic and foreign policies, with 64 per cent giving economic policy negative marks and 74 per cent giving foreign policy a bad grade.   

The poll showed 64 per cent of Americans think the country is on the wrong track, and only 24 per cent think it is headed in the right direction.   

While a quarter of the poll's respondents are at least somewhat uneasy about their job security, 59 percent rank their personal financial situation as either excellent or good.   

"To some degree, people have simply adjusted to the idea that they aren't doing any better," Zogby said.   

More than half of respondents, 51 percent, said they felt only "fairly" safe from threats abroad, with 27 per cent feeling very safe and 21 per cent feeling not very safe or not safe at all.   

About 38 per cent said they were "fairly" confident their children would lead a better life, with 26 per cent very confident and 23 per cent not very confident. Seven per cent were not confident at all.   

"There is a certain amount of uneasiness about safety, about foreign policy, economic policy, about the war, and that has become part of life," Zogby said.   

But the level of pride in the United States remained largely unchanged from last month, with more than two-thirds saying they were "very" proud, 20 per cent fairly proud and 9 per cent not very proud.   

The national telephone survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.