Bush trails generic Dem

As AWD has pointed out in the comments, a new Quinnipiac University poll shows Bush trailing an unnamed Democratic party candidate 48-44. This poll also gives Bush a 53-39 approval rating, demontrating that 1) the approval numbers aren't indicative of people's voting intents, and 2) that Bush is still enjoying some residual goodwill from 9-11.

"This month, we find that an unnamed Democrat would edge out President Bush. The political winds are hard to read this early in the game, but we do know that war and a bad economy are not good for anyone -- especially sitting presidents," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

In the primary campaign, the poll found Hillary would be the runaway favorite, but since she's not running, the numbers look like this:

Lieberman: 21 percent
Gephardt: 17 percent
Kerry: 12 percent
Edwards: 8 percent
Moseley-Braun: 7 percent
Graham: 6 percent
Sharpton: 5 percent
Dean: 4 percent
Kucinich: 2 percent

Still early, these national polls measure little more than name ID, but still, Dean is going to have to start moving up soon. It's clear that the debates will be critical (even though with the large field, each candidate will probably have five minutes to speak in each one hour debate).

(The Bush vs. unnamed Dem portion of the poll has a MOE of 2.8 percent. The Dem primary voter portion has a MOE of 4.5 percent.)

Posted March 06, 2003 09:24 AM | Comments (38)