Newsweek Poll: Majority Disapprove of Gore

And roughly equal majorities also disapprove of Vice President Al Gore's handling of the ongoing presidential election dispute (55 percent) and say he should concede now (53 percent) or even if the U.S. Supreme Court rules in his favor (61 percent).

In the previous Newsweek poll, Nov. 16-17, 61 percent said it was more important to remove all reasonable doubt than to proceed as soon as possible to resolve the matter. A week earlier, fully 72 percent said removing all reasonable doubt was more important.

In the latest Newsweek poll, a minority of adults surveyed think what's happening in Florida is either already a crisis (25 percent) for the country or is becoming one (30 percent). Forty-two percent say it is unlikely to become a crisis.

But 64 percent do not think the country will be seriously hurt by a delay in the transition to the next administration (33 percent think it will), and 60 percent of adults approve of the Clinton administration's decision to hold off on giving Bush access to federal funds and office space in Washington to begin a transition.

Twenty-six percent of people say they are very confident and 36 percent say they are somewhat confident that after all the legal issues are resolved the presidential candidate who actually received the most votes in Florida will be awarded the state's overall electoral votes (19 percent say they are not too confident; 14 percent say they are not confident at all).

Sixty percent also believe that Bush's ability to be an effective leader would not be hurt if he won because hand counts favoring Gore were excluded; only 49 percent say Gore would not be seriously hurt as a leader if he ends up winning only after lengthy legal battles over the hand counts, and about as many (47 percent) believe he would be.

Fifty-five percent of adults surveyed disapprove of Gore's handling of the situation in Florida, while 53 percent approve of Texas Gov. George W. Bush's handling of it.

Fifty-three percent say Gore should concede now, compared with 44 percent who say he should continue to pursue cases in court; 61 percent think Gore should concede even if the U.S. Supreme Court rules in his favor, compared with 37 percent who say he should go ahead with the lower court cases.

And if the U.S. Supreme Court rules against Gore, 58 percent say he should concede, with 38 percent saying he should still go forward with other legal challenges.

Ironically, there is substantial support for some of Gore's legal arguments. A 54 percent majority in the Newsweek poll says the U.S. Supreme Court should rule that the Florida Supreme Court acted properly in extending the deadline for hand recounts (38 percent said it did not). But there is an almost even split among adults on whether the highest court in the nation should set its own guidelines for how and when ballots should be recounted (48 percent say it should; 45 percent say it should not).

And while the majority of people (62 percent) think it would be unfair if there were no hand count of 10,000 ballots from Miami-Dade County that did not register on tabulating machines, they are almost evenly split on whether "dimpled chads" should be counted as votes (49 percent say they should not count versus 45 percent say they should).

If the U.S. Congress ends up having to choose between Gore electors, chosen under Florida court order, or Bush electors, named by the Florida Legislature, there is almost another even split: 36 percent in the Newsweek poll favor the Bush electors, 35 percent the Gore slate.

While far more people (51 percent) believe Bush received more votes in Florida than Gore (32 percent), there is still a virtual tie over who Americans would like to see become the next president, with 44 percent preferring Bush and 42 percent choosing Gore. But the majority (56 perceny) say that if Gore's legal challenges fail he should run for president again in 2004 (37 percent say he should not).

On how the two candidates are handling themselves during this period, 58 percent of people think Gore has done a good job of explaining why there is reasonable doubt over Florida's votes and 58 percent say he has seemed honest and straightforward when making his case.

Almost the same number of adults, 54 percent, say Bush has done a good job of explaining why there should be no more recounts and 61 percent say he seemed honest and straightforward in making his case. More people (54 percent) see Bush coming across as presidential than see Gore (46 percent) that way.

They are evenly split (49 percent to 49 percent), however, on whether or not Bush is moving too fast with his presidential transition while there are outstanding legal questions. And they are almost as evenly split on whether Bush is as involved as he should be in making decisions on Florida (44 percent) or whether he is leaving too many decisions to others (40 percent).

For this Newsweek poll, Princeton Survey Research Associates interviewed 1,005 adults, by telephone, aged 18 and older from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, 2000. The margin of error for the entire poll is plus or minus 4 percentage points.