HELENA (AP)
Nearly six of 10 likely voters in Montana disapprove of Bush administration policies in Iraq, a new poll shows. The poll, conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research of Washington, D.C., showed 58 percent of likely voters don’t support U.S. policies in Iraq while 42 percent approve. Just 1 percent was undecided. The poll has a sampling error of 4 percentage points. The results are from a telephone poll of 625 likely voters conducted Oct. 17-19 for McClatchy Newspapers and MSNBC. Lee Newspapers of Montana plans another poll shortly before the Nov. 7 election. When given four options of what the
U. S. should do in Iraq, the poll found:
28 percent supported withdrawing all U.S. troops.
219 percent supported withdrawing some troops.
219 percent favored sending more troops to Iraq.
218 percent favored keeping the same number of U.S. troops in Iraq.
216 percent weren’t sure the U.S. should do.
“They’re all over the board on the troops,” said pollster Brad Coker, managing director of Mason-Dixon Polling & Research. “As much disapproval as there is on the war, there is no consensus on the troops.” The poll also asked how worried likely voters were about another major terrorist attack in the U.S. It found 55 percent were worried, 41 percent were not and 4 percent were undecided. Sixty-one percent of those polled said they believed the country is heading down the wrong track, while 30 percent said the nation is heading in the right direction, with 9 percent not sure. Montana voters disapprove of the job President Bush is doing by a 52 percent to 47 percent margin, just slightly over the poll’s sampling error. Voters gave Congress a poorer jobapproval rating. By a 66 percent to 26 percent margin, Montana voters said they disapproved of the way Congress is handling its job. Still, by a 41 percent to 36 percent margin, Montanans wanted House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., to remain in his post rather than step down because of the way he handled the case involving Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla. Foley resigned recently after it was reported that he had sent sexually explicit instant messages to current and Former House pages. Fifty-six percent of those polled said they were concerned about the direction of the nation’s economy over the new few years, while 44 percent said they were not worried. Finally, the poll asked likely Montana voters if their family has had enough money to maintain their standard of living or whether they feel as if they have fallen behind. Sixty-six percent said they believe their family has had enough money to maintain their standard of living, while 32 percent said they were falling behind. Two percent were undecided.
