U.S. Adults Remain Very Pessimistic About Situation in Iraq (Harris Poll)

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U.S. Adults Remain Very Pessimistic About Situation in Iraq, According to Latest Harris Poll


President Bush's approval rating ties lowest point

ROCHESTER, N.Y., May 26 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. adults remain very
pessimistic about the situation in Iraq, and are not confident that U.S.
policies there will be successful. As a result, President Bush's job
approval rating in handling the situation in Iraq hasn't changed in two
months -- two-thirds (68%) give the president negative marks -- tying an
all-time low.

These are the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 2,085 U.S. adults
surveyed online by Harris Interactive(R) between May 9 and 16, 2006.
Specifically, this poll finds:

* President Bush's rating on his handling of events in Iraq is currently
68 percent negative, 29 percent positive. This is virtually identical to
March's ratings when, by 68 to 30 percent, U.S. adults gave the
President negative marks. This remains the lowest measure for the
president.
* In this new poll, 43 percent of U.S. adults think that the situation for
U.S. troops is getting worse, down three percentage points from the 46
percent who felt this way in March. Only 20 percent now think things are
getting better, a slight improvement from 17 percent in March.
* Six in 10 (61%) U.S. adults are not confident "that U.S. policies in
Iraq will be successful." This has remained the same from March. Only 22
percent are confident about U.S. policies in Iraq; a slight improvement
from March's 20 percent.
* By 47 to 38 percent, a plurality of U.S. adults believes that "taking
military action against Iraq" was the wrong thing to do. In March, a
nearly identical 48 to 37 percent plurality also felt this way.
Concerning the possibility that there will be civil war in Iraq in the
next six months, just under three in 10 (29%) U.S. adults say that such a
war is extremely or very likely, with another 19 percent saying that it is
likely. Four in 10 adults (40%) think that it is somewhat likely or not at
all likely. These feelings have not wavered from those in March, when 30
percent felt a civil war in Iraq was likely as compared to 38 who felt that
civil war wasn't as likely.