i didn't read the whole article, but the opening is telling enough. makes me wonder how many people are a part of all those other approval rating polls & such. and how does a sample of just over 500 people get touted as "americans say...."


from: http://msnbc.com/news/893035.asp

March 30 — Less than two weeks into the war on Iraq, President Bush’s popularity ratings have rebounded from January’s lows, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. But while Americans back the president’s handling of the war thus far, the survey finds that they are are increasingly concerned about the prospect of a long engagement in Iraq, mindful of minimizing Iraqi civilian casualties and — by a wide margin — unsupportive of Bush’s tax cut plan.



THE POLL of 501 adults, sampled for opinions on Saturday and Sunday, showed the president’s approval numbers inching steadily higher since the start of the Iraq war March 20: 66 percent generally approve of the job Bush is doing as president, compared to the 54 percent who supported him in January. The latest indication of support, however, is a far cry from Bush’s popularity numbers in November 2001 — 88 percent, the highest approval rating of any U.S. president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose rating reached 84 percent after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
While Americans support the president, the poll also found a growing unease with the progress of the war against Iraq. Nine percent of those surveyed said the war was proceeding better than expected, a drop from a poll conducted March 23, in which 25 percent expressed optimism with the war’s prosecution. Conversely, 20 percent said the war was going worse than expected, a 100 percent increase from the 10 percent who expressed misgivings in the March 23 poll.