Cheney's Job Approval at 36%

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- The latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup survey finds a 36% job approval rating for Vice President Dick Cheney, just a point lower than the job rating for President George W. Bush. While some observers have speculated that the vice president is losing popularity because of the indictment of his closest aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the poll suggests that Cheney's ratings and Bush's ratings are closely tied to each other. Cheney's low rating in the most recent poll may be partially a result of the publicity surrounding Libby's indictment, but if that's the case, the Libby situation has most probably affected Bush as well.

Gallup has measured Cheney's job approval six times since Bush first assumed the presidency, and on five of the six occasions, the ratings of the two men were very similar.

The one exception occurred in January 2002, just four months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when the country rallied around the president. That rally effect apparently did not extend as completely to the vice president, though his rating was higher at that time than at any other period Gallup has measured.

For each of the six times, Republicans gave a higher rating to Bush than to Cheney. The smallest gap was just 2 points (Bush's 89% to Cheney's 87% in May 2001), while the largest gap of 12 points shows up in the latest poll (80% for Bush vs. 68% for Cheney).

On the other hand, on five of the six measures, Cheney received higher ratings from the Democrats than did Bush. The only exception was the January 2002 reading, which was apparently still influenced by the 9/11 rally effect.

These results suggest that Bush tends to polarize the country more than Cheney. The difference in the president's ratings between Republicans and Democrats is now at 73 points, with 80% of Republicans approving of the president's job performance, compared with only 7% of Democrats. By comparison, Cheney's polarization score is 56 points -- 68% of Republicans approve of Cheney's performance, compared with 12% of Democrats.

Except for the January 2002 reading, when the polarization scores of both officials were much lower than normal, Bush's polarization score has been higher than Cheney's -- by margins of 10 points to 17 points. The exception found Cheney with a polarization score of 35 points compared with Bush's 28 points.

Cheney's Advice Seen as Harmful

The poll also shows that a majority of Americans, 52%, rate Cheney's advice to the president as "bad," which "has created problems for the administration." Another 34% say his advice has been good and "has helped the administration."

Which comes closer to your view about the advice Vice President Dick Cheney has given to President George W. Bush over the past five years -- [ROTATED: Cheney has generally given good advice that has helped the administration, (or) Cheney has generally given bad advice that has created problems for the administration]?

In August 2004, when Bush's job approval rating was 49% (and presumably, Cheney's rating was similar), the public was more evenly divided, with 41% saying the vice president's advice was good and 39% saying bad.

The pattern of responses to this question suggest that it closely mirrors job approval ratings, entailing mostly a general feeling about the overall performance of the Bush/Cheney administration rather than a specific critique of Cheney's advice to Bush.

Survey Methods

Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,006 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Nov. 11-13, 2005. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error 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.

9. Do you approve or disapprove of the way Dick Cheney is handling his job as vice president?

10. Which comes closer to your view about the advice Vice President Dick Cheney has given to President George W. Bush over the past five years -- [ROTATED: Cheney has generally given good advice that has helped the administration, (or) Cheney has generally given bad advice that has created problems for the administration]?