Poll: Most think Bush is failing second term
(CNN)
Updated: 2006-01-28 11:06

Split on honesty

Americans were divided evenly -- 49-49 -- on the question of Bush's honesty.

The number of those polled who consider Bush trustworthy improved from a November survey, when only 46 percent rated him honest. But the figure is down from a year ago, when 56 percent considered him honest and trustworthy, and only 41 percent disapproved.

Specifically, 53 percent said they believe his administration deliberately misled the public about whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, as Bush and other top officials argued on the eve of the March 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Once Hussein was overthrown, U.S. inspectors concluded that Iraq had not kept stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, long-range missiles and a nuclear weapons program, though Iraq had concealed weapons-related research from the United Nations.

U.S. troops are battling a persistent insurgency in Iraq, with two soldiers killed in combat Wednesday, raising the American death toll to 2,238. More than 2,000 of those have died since Bush declared an end to "major combat operations" May 1, 2003.

The war in Iraq topped the list of respondents' concerns going into 2006, with 58 percent calling it extremely important. Terrorism was next with 57 percent, followed by health care with 47 percent, the economy at 46 percent and corruption at 45 percent.

Most of those polled said they believe the United States will have a "significant number" of troops in Iraq for more than a year, with 47 percent believing the U.S. commitment will last one to three years and 33 percent believing the U.S. presence will last longer than that.

Thirty-four percent said they considered economic conditions good and 5 percent excellent, while 41 percent rated the economy fair and 18 percent poor.

Asked which way the economy was headed, 35 percent said they believed it was improving; 54 percent said it was getting worse.

Economic growth has picked up in recent months, and unemployment has declined since 2003. But gasoline prices remain well over $2 a gallon on average, and natural gas and heating oil bills have gone up since 2005.