WASHINGTON — All year long, in speeches and briefings and visits to factories and shops, President Bush and his aides have tried to convince Americans that the economy is in good shape -- and that the president deserves some credit for that.
That effort is not making much headway, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.
Americans are closely divided on whether the economy is in good shape, with 50% saying it is doing well and 47% saying it is doing badly, the poll found. In January, when Bush launched his campaign to spread good news, the national mood was slightly better: In a Times Poll that month, 55% said the economy was doing well.
And Bush doesn't get much credit for the economy's relative health, the new survey found. Of respondents, 39% say they approve of the president's handling of the economy and 19% say they think the economy is better because of his policies -- numbers that are basically unchanged since the beginning of the year.
People questioned in the poll cited several reasons for their gloomy views, but two were mentioned most frequently: fears of higher unemployment, and the high price of gasoline and other fuels.
About six of every 10 respondents said they considered Bush at least partly responsible for the high price of gasoline; almost six in 10 said their families had cut back on spending in other areas because of the cost of fuel.
"I think the economy could be doing better, and I think it reflects on Bush," said Carol Testa, 50, a sixth-grade teacher in Milford, N.J., who said she was a registered Republican and voted for the president in 2000 and 2004. "I'm disappointed in him.
"I make a good salary and so does my husband," she said. "He's a dentist, and he has more patients than he can handle ... [but] I'm worried about my kids."
Christopher Harris, another Republican voter, said he was disappointed in the president's performance too.
"I have been a Bush supporter going back a long way, but there are a lot of things I'm not happy about," said Harris, 36, a telecommunications equipment salesman who lives near Raleigh, N.C.
"The economy just feels uneasy to me. I see waves of business, and then it drops back off," he said. "A lot of my customers have moved business offshore.... I think there's been a lack of attention to the economy because of the Iraq situation."
The Times/Bloomberg poll interviewed 1,321 adults nationwide between Saturday and Tuesday under the supervision of Times Poll Director Susan Pinkus.
