A general appreciation for Bush

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, MARCH 14. For a President trying to consolidate his political base and agenda in the aftermath of a controversial election last November, the latest CBS-New York Times poll can be of some cheer and at the same time with a lot of indications on what could be in store down the road.

At a broad level, about 40 per cent have opined that the country was headed in the right direction while 54 per cent believed that it was on the wrong track; and for Mr. George W Bush personally, only four in 10 people believed that he was running things and about half of those polled said that other people - meaning advisors - were running the country.

At a time when Mr. Bush is anxiously looking at Capitol Hill and to the Senate to get his tax cuts through, more than half of the Americans polled believe that he is doing the right thing with his plans for the budget surplus. But when it comes down to specifics like the fairness of the tax cut plan, support dwindles.

Six out of 10 Americans generally approve the job Mr. Bush is doing as also his plans in dealing with the budget surplus. But only 38 per cent have said that it is fair to all Americans with 56 per cent saying that it benefited the rich and 54 per cent taking the position that a tax cut would not be making a significant difference for them.

By and large, the Bush administration has come to be preoccupied with the $1.6 trillion tax package which passed the House of Representatives last week. But in the last two months Mr. Bush has also paid attention to education and in drawing religious organisations to provide social services, an idea that has generated a luke warm response from religious leaders.

By a four to one margin, those polled said that they approve of mandatory testing to see how schools were faring; but when the question is posed as whether federal money should be taken away from schools where students were doing badly, the idea was opposed by a two to one margin.

Likewise by a two to one margin those polled believed that involving religious organisations in social services by providing them with federal money was a good idea; at the same time the same margin also opposed government money going to religious groups like the Nation of Islam, the Church of Scientology and the Hare Krishnas.

For example, there is a lot of scepticism in the public on such issues as the environment. In the latest poll, by a two to one margin the perception was that protecting the environment was more important than energy and almost 60 per cent have opined that they oppose drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The Bush White House is unlikely to be swayed one way or the other by the results of the latest poll. There have been a lot of media reports of the style of functioning of the new administration which by most accounts is less concerned about polling numbers or taking a particular stance based on the results of a private poll.

While the Republican administration will continue to persist with the Conservative domestic agenda, the top priority will be the tax package plan. The new concern is that there are more than just a handful of Republican Senators not signing on to the idea. But the optimism still is that not only will the Senate pass the bill but it will also do it earlier given the state of the economy.

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