Cheney: Popular but Unobtrusive

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- From a public relations standpoint, Dick Cheney appears to be a successful vice president for the Bush administration. The American people generally like him, Republicans support him, and despite his important role within the White House, he does not outshine his boss publicly.

A late October CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll finds a majority of Americans (55%) holding a favorable view of the vice president and one-third (33%) holding an unfavorable view. This is only marginally less than his peak favorable rating as vice president recorded in January 2002. At that point, 67% of the public viewed him favorably and just 20% unfavorably.

Opinion of Cheney Since Taking Office as Vice President

The pattern of Cheney's ratings since he became vice president generally parallels public opinion toward President Bush, suggesting that Cheney's image is tied more to his boss' job performance than to anything he is doing individually.

Favorable Rating Comparison: Bush and Cheney % Saying "Favorable"

Given the choice of keeping Cheney on the ticket or choosing someone new, a majority of Americans (51%) think Bush should keep Cheney as his running mate in 2004. About two-thirds of Republicans (69%) agree with this, while 28% of Republicans would prefer a different vice-presidential candidate.

This level of Republican interest in replacing Cheney might give the vice president some pause given that Bush has already committed to keeping him on the ticket, and there is no evident move afoot by anyone to alter that. Republicans' backing of Cheney on this measure is only slightly stronger than the support they showed for Dan Quayle at a comparable point in his tenure as the elder Bush's vice president. A November 1991 Gallup Poll found 43% of Americans and 61% of Republicans saying Bush should keep Quayle on the ticket. However, the desire to replace Quayle had been much higher earlier in that year. In May 1991, Gallup found Republicans split at 46% over whether Bush should replace or retain Quayle on the ticket.

If President Bush runs for re-election in 2004, do you think he should keep Dick Cheney as his vice-presidential running mate, or choose someone new?

Oct 24-26, 2003

An Active Vice President

As the cover story on Newsweek online this week describes it, Vice President Cheney is playing an unusually active advisory role to the president on national security matters, and was a key (and according to Newsweek, controversial) player in convincing Bush to launch this year's war with Iraq. By contrast, few Americans consider Cheney to be a "power behind the throne" kind of vice president.

• Only 21% of Americans think he wields too much power in the administration -- roughly the same as the percentage believing he has too little power (22%). Most Americans (51%) believe Cheney has the right amount of power.

• Additionally, only 18% of Americans believe Cheney makes more of the important decisions in the Bush administration. The majority (63%) believes Bush makes more of the important decisions.

• Just before Bush-Cheney took office, the perception that Cheney would be the real decision maker was more widespread than that observation is today. In a Jan. 5-7, 2001 Gallup Poll, just 55% thought Bush would be the primary decision-maker while 30% predicted it would be Cheney.

Survey Methods

These results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,006 adults, aged 18 years and older, conducted Oct. 24-26, 2003. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is ±3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

11. Next, we'd like to get your overall opinion of some people in the news. As I read each name, please say if you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of these people -- or if you have never heard of them. First, ... How about... [RANDOM ORDER]

A. Dick Cheney

 

	Favorable	Unfavorable	Never heard of	No opinion
	%	%	%	%
2003 Oct 24-26	55	33	3	9
2003 Sep 19-21	54	36	3	7
2003 Jun 27-29 ^	54	34	3	9
2003 Jan 31-Feb 2	61	28	2	9
2002 Sep 23-26	65	24	4	7
2002 Jul 26-28	57	30	3	10
2002 Jan 11-14	67	20	3	10
2001 Apr 20-22	64	22	3	11
2001 Mar 5-7	63	18	5	14
2001 Jan 15-16	61	23	5	11
2000 Dec 15-17	61	23	6	10
2000 Dec 2-4	58	23	8	11
2000 Nov 13-15	51	22	9	18
2000 Nov 13-15	53	22	8	17
2000 Sep 15-17	46	24	8	22
2000 Aug 18-19	54	21	5	20
2000 Aug 4-5	48	21	9	22
2000 Jul 25-26	51	14	12	23
1994 Mar 28-30 ^	49	21	16	14
^ Asked of a half sample
† Based on 466 Republicans; Asked: "Former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney."

12. If President Bush runs for re-election in 2004, do you think he should keep Dick Cheney as his vice-presidential running mate, or choose someone new?

 

		Cheney	Someone new	No opinion
National Adults		%	%	%
2003 Oct 24-26		51	42	7
2003 Jul 18-20		53	39	8
Republicans
2003 Oct 24-26 ^		69	28	3
2003 Jul 18-20		72	24	4
^	Based on 343 Republicans; Margin of error: ±6 pct. pts.

Trends for Comparison: Dan Quayle

 

	Quayle	Someone new	No opinion
National Adults	%	%	%
1992 Jul 24-26	37	50	13
1991 Nov 14-17	43	46	11
1991 Aug 8-11	50	46	4
1991 May 23-26	39	52	9
1991 May 6-7	39	51	10
1991 Feb 14-16	38	53	9
1990 Nov 8-11	36	55	9
1990 Mar 8-11	35	49	16
Republicans
1992 Jul 24-26	54	39	7
1991 Nov 14-17	61	32	7
1991 Aug 8-11	52	43	5
1991 May 23-26	56	38	7
1991 May 6-7	46	46	8
1991 Feb 14-16	52	42	7
1990 Nov 8-11	46	48	5
1990 Mar 8-11	49	37	14

13. Do you think Dick Cheney has too much, too little, or about the right amount of power in the Bush administration?

BASED ON 516 NATIONAL ADULTS IN FORM A

 

		Too much	Too little	About the right amount	No opinion
		%	%	%	%
2003 Oct 24-26 ^		21	22	51	6
2001 May 18-20		13	16	61	10
^	Based on a half sample.

 

14. Who do you think makes more of the important decisions in the Bush administration -- [ROTATED: George W. Bush (or) Dick Cheney]?

BASED ON 490 NATIONAL ADULTS IN FORM B

 

	Bush	Cheney	BOTH/NEITHER (vol.)	No opinion
	%	%	%	%
2003 Oct 24-26	63	18	14	5
(vol.) Volunteered response

 

 

Trend for Comparison:

Who do you think will be making more of the important decisions in the next administration -- [ROTATED: George W. Bush (or) Dick Cheney]?

 

	Bush	Cheney	BOTH/NEITHER (vol.)	No opinion
2001 Jan 5-7	% 55	% 30	% 9	% 6
(vol.) Volunteered response