WASHINGTON — With one week until election day, voters appear poised to present President Clinton with a decisive victory, but remain deeply divided in the battle for control of Congress, The Times Poll has found.
Compared to the last national Times survey in early October, the new poll shows the GOP position strengthening in the struggle for Congress, even as Republican candidate Bob Dole's standing further deteriorates against Clinton.
With nearly 90% of likely voters saying they have now firmly settled on their choice in the presidential race, the survey shows Clinton leading Dole by 51% to 34%, with Ross Perot trailing at 12%. That's a measurable turn up from Clinton's 12 percentage point lead in The Times poll in early October.
But Democrats now hold only a margin of 4 percentage points over Republicans when likely voters are asked which party they will support for Congress--a drop since earlier this month. Indeed, even as Republicans launch a new advertising blitz meant to discourage Americans from giving Democrats unified control of government, the survey already finds a slight decline in the percentage of voters who want to see a Democratic Congress elected if Clinton wins.
Dole's arguments against Clinton seem to be facing much stiffer head winds. With both Dole and Perot now relentlessly assailing Clinton's ethics, the survey does find a substantial minority of voters uneasy about the president's honesty and integrity. And 52% of voters said Clinton should "unequivocally" rule out pardoning Susan McDougal and other figures convicted in the Whitewater case--as the president has staunchly refused to do.
But the survey also makes clear that Clinton is benefiting from an "everybody does it" attitude among many voters. Only about 4 in 10 voters said Clinton is less ethical than Dole. Roughly an equal number said Clinton is just as ethical as Dole, and another 1 in 6 said the president's ethics are superior to his rival's. And 3 in 5 of those polled said that Clinton is "just about as ethical as most other modern-day presidents."
'Politics as Usual'
Along the same line, a majority of voters said the controversy over donations from foreign companies and foreign nationals to the Democratic National Committee constitutes "politics as usual" rather than evidence of serious wrongdoing by Democrats.
