Americans Want Different Type of President Next Time, Poll Says (3/5 ppl)

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Americans Want Different Type of President Next Time, Poll Says

Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Three in five Americans want the next U.S. president to be completely different from incumbent George W. Bush, according to a poll by Time magazine.

Bush's policies in Iraq and high gasoline and energy prices had a ``very negative'' effect on his overall job rating for 45 percent of respondents, according to the poll, conducted between Nov. 29 and Dec. 1. The results showed 36 percent would like the next president to have policies similar to those of Bush, compared with 60 percent who want a different type of leader.

The findings indicate Bush is failing to reverse flagging approval ratings after laying out his strategy for Iraq in a Nov. 30 speech. The poll showed 41 percent approve of the job Bush is doing while 53 percent disapprove, little changed from results in September after Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast. Of those who disapprove, 76 percent said they were unlikely to change their opinion of Bush.

Bush said in the Nov. 30 speech that he would set no timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Training and equipping Iraqi forces to take over their country's security is crucial to U.S. success in the conflict and will strike a blow against terrorism, Bush said in the speech at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.