WASHINGTON — Americans, by a greater than 3-1 margin, oppose the proposed deal that would allow a state-owned Arab firm to assume control of operations at several U.S. ports, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.
The takeover faces broad opposition -- substantial margins of Democrats, independents and Republicans said they did not want the agreement to proceed.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday March 04, 2006 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 1 inches; 30 words Type of Material: Correction
Times/Bloomberg poll -- A graphic in Friday's Section A labeled some survey responses about George W. Bush's handling of various issues as "Other." The label should have been "Don't know."
The deal, which sparked a bipartisan storm of criticism in Congress, is undergoing a 45-day review by administration officials.
Buffeted by resistance to the port transaction and discontent over the turmoil in Iraq, President Bush's approval rating fell to 38%, the lowest level recorded for him in a Times poll. His disapproval rating rose to 58%.
And, in a trend that could affect turnout in the November midterm elections, Bush confronts what might be called an intensity gap: The percentage of Americans who said they strongly disapproved of his performance on a wide range of issues greatly exceeded the share who strongly approved.
The Times/Bloomberg poll, supervised by Times Poll Director Susan Pinkus, surveyed 1,273 adults nationwide from Saturday through Wednesday. The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Support for Bush has slipped since a Times/Bloomberg poll in January, when 43% said they approved of his performance and 54% disapproved.
Debbie Davis, a Republican in Middleport, Ohio, who responded to the new poll, remains positive about Bush. "He does a good job," the sales representative said. "He has just been put in tough situations."
But Beverly Greenwald, a Democrat in Atlanta, expressed the intensity registered by many Bush critics in the survey. "He's an incompetent, ignorant man who looks for simple answers to complex issues," the psychotherapist said. "He shouldn't even be allowed to run a small Texas town."
In the new poll, 43% of independents, 12% of Democrats and 77% of Republicans rated Bush's performance positively. Since January, that represents a slight improvement among independents, virtually no change among Republicans and a decline among Democrats.
Contributing to the fall in Bush's approval rating since January was a slight increase in the new poll in the number of respondents who identified themselves as Democrats.
"Party identification is a dynamic variable that changes with the popularity of the party in control," Pinkus said. "The proportion of people who identified with the Republican Party was higher when Bush had more positive approval ratings."
