Poll: U.S. Gets Low Marks on Fighting Terrorism
This poll was taken as part of CBS News' "Where America Stands" series, an in-depth look at where the country stands today on key topics and an outlook for the future decade.
In addition, two in three say a terror attack in the United States is at least somewhat likely in the next few months.
In December, before the terror attack, 45 percent gave the U.S. and A or B grade when it came to fighting terrorism. After the attack, that fell ten points to 35 percent. The percentage giving a C grade, meanwhile, rose from 29 percent to 42 percent.
The newly-released survey was taken from January 6th through 10th.
Perhaps reflecting the fact that their party controls the White House and Congress, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to give the country a good grade. Thirty-nine percent of Democrats offer an A or B, compared to 28 percent of Republicans. Republicans are almost three times as likely as Democrats to offer a D or F.
Just 30 percent say such an attack is not very likely, or not at all likely. That's a drop of 21 points from last month.
Fears tend to spike immediately following an attack. In October 2001, 53 percent said an attack in the coming months was very likely, while just one in ten said it was not very or not at all likely.
In the new survey, twenty-two percent say they are very concerned about an attack in their area, an increase of five points from last month. Those living in the Northeast are the most concerned about an attack in their area.
This poll was conducted among a random sample of 1,216 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone January 6-10, 2009. Phone numbers were dialed from random digit dial samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.
This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.