Couric & Co.
January 24, 2007 2:14 PM

State Of the Union: How'd He Do?

What did viewers think of the President's speech last night? CBS News Director of Surveys Kathleen Frankovic has a snapshot, from an instant poll.
(AP Photo/Larry Downing, Pool)
Who watches the State of the Union message? Usually, the audience is rooting for the President to begin with. When it's a Democrat in the White House, Democrats are more likely to watch, and when it's a Republican in the White House, Republicans are more likely to tune him in. So when polling the public's reaction, it's important to know WHO is watching as well as what they think.

CBS News has been measuring instant response to State of the Union messages for more than a decade. This year, as we have since 2000, we partnered with Knowledge Networks, who have assembled a random sample of the public, given all of them access to the internet, and posed questions as the speech ended to a sample of more than 500 of those who said they planned to watch. Those watchers are older than the adult population as a whole, they are likley to be more interested in politics, and they like the President more than those who don't watch. In fact, their pre-speech approval rating was 43% -- 15 points higher than the approval rating among all adults in the last CBS News Poll conducted before the speech.

But even those watchers had pre-speech doubts. Before the speech a majority opposed sending over 20,000 aditional troops to Iraq. Six in ten didn't think the Presdient shared their priorities. And by two to one they disapproved of the way President Bush was handling the issue of immigration.

The President was successful in changing some of those minds. Eight in ten watchers said they approved of most of the proposals he made in the speech, and support for the troop surge jumped to 52% after the speech (although nearly as many still opposed the surge). 53%, up from 38% before the speech, now said the President shared their priorities. Mr. Bush may have changed the most minds on the issue of immigration, rasing his approval rating on that issue from 31% beforehand to 56% afterwards. It's not clear from the poll, however, what exactly about his immigration proposals was most liked.

But even those speechwatchers, with their overall positive assessment of what the President said, remained skeptical on one important quesion -- whether or not his proposals will ever become law. 59% of speech watchers said they did not think the Presdient and the Democrats in Congress would be able to work together in a fair and non-partisan manner.

As for the long term effect of the speech? That will depend on what the rest of the country - those younger, less politically engaged, and less favorable towards the President see and hear in the coming days and weeks.

Tags:
state of the union ,
bush
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Field Notes
Add a Comment
by billzor January 25, 2007 3:48 PM EST
United we stand, divided we fall. Certainly, I want there to be peace in the world, and any reasonable person would see war as unecessary and unaceptable, due to the variety of peaceful solutions. Certainly, it is logical that we should bring our troops home, save American lives, and let the Iraqi's fight their own war. The bigger picture, and the long term effects, however, I believe, outweigh the practicality of this thinking. If we pack up our bags now, 1) it will be the greatest defeat in the history of the United States, 2) it will serve as a rallying point for those who would cause violence for the sake of power in Iraq, and elsewhere, especially in the middle east 3) it would serve as a rallying point for the terrorists who attack us worldwide. 4) We will have left the freedom and peace loving Iraqi's to fend for themselves, which would be an injustice. The world changed completely on 9/11. Many of us have never lived with the fears of an actual world war in progress, and before 9/11, many of us had never lived with the fear of being attacked on our own soil. I believe, and this is just my opinion, that if we leave Iraq now, the threats that this country faces will grow stronger, there will be more people fighting against us, and the world will be left much more unsettled and violent than it is now. The US will be seen as cowardly, instead of being capable of bringing peace to the world by forcibly stopping violence.
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by annd2302 January 24, 2007 11:42 PM EST
Posted by One_American at 03:34 PM : Jan 24, 2007

"President Bush is already working his plan for the successful completion of the mission in Iraq.

Americans love a leader who sticks to his principals."

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One_American, that has to be one of the best comments I have read today. Just think, now really think about this. If, (The big "IF") our enemies in IRAQ@ could read comments like yours all over these web sites, all positive all good, I guarantee we as America would not be in IRAQ, we would of all-ready been successful and won the conflict or war whatever you want to call it and everyone back home. That is the way we used to do things well, that is not quite true either, we just need to quit being the world%u2019s police force.
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by annd2302 January 24, 2007 11:26 PM EST
middlecrank Posted



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by jeffstersf January 24, 2007 11:18 PM EST
One_American, you still hitting the hooch? You seem to be the last American who LOVES Bush.

Morons love morons.
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by bob-p January 24, 2007 7:58 PM EST
I think Bush should just start thinking about pulling our troops out if iraq he should just be a man and say that he screwed up. We have no bussiness over there let them fight there own war.He should put the soldiers on all the borders in the USA.
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by one_american January 24, 2007 6:34 PM EST
President Bush is already working his plan for the successful completion of the mission in Iraq.

Americans love a leader who sticks to his principals.
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