President Bush has slipped further in popularity as he fights to retain the White House, and a new opinion poll Saturday put him almost neck-and-neck with Democratic front-runner Bill Clinton.
The Republican president, who is campaigning for a second four-year term in the Nov. 3 presidential election, now has only a 39 percent approval rating among Americans, according to a Newsweek public opinion poll.The poll, by Gallup, indicated another 53 percent disapprove of the way he is handling his job. The results, which will be carried in the news magazine on Monday but were released Saturday, have a margin of error of four percentage points.
When asked who they would vote for if the 1992 election were held today, the 750 adults polled were almost evenly divided, with 48 percent for Bush and 44 percent for Clinton.
Bush has seen his popularity slide to a record low from around 90 percent after the Persian Gulf war victory in March last year. The Newsweek poll rated it at 42 percent a month ago.