UNITED STATES: US President George Bush's popularity rating has fallen to the lowest point of his presidency in the wake of the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, and support for his handling of the Iraq war is slipping, according to a new poll.
Six months before the presidential election, Mr Bush and Democratic challenger Mr John Kerry are running neck and neck. But for the first time, Americans are almost evenly divided as to whether Mr Bush or the Massachusetts senator would do a better job of handling Iraq.
Some 48 per cent of adults surveyed in the Gallup poll thought the president would handle the situation in Iraq better, compared with 45 per cent for Mr Kerry. In March 54 per cent of voters believed Bush would do a better job of handling Iraq, compared with 39 per cent for Kerry.
The percentage of Americans who approve of the job Mr Bush is doing has also fallen from 49 per cent last week to 46 per cent.
When asked whom they preferred in the election, Mr Bush shades Mr Kerry by 48 per cent to 47 per cent. The poll also found that only 44 per cent of Americans now believe the war in Iraq was worthwhile and 54 per cent said it was not, the first time a majority said the war was not worth it. Some 79 per cent of Americans said they were bothered by abuse of Iraqi prisoners but in a boost for Mr Bush's beleaguered Defence Secretary, less than a third of Americans felt that Mr Donald Rumsfeld should resign over the scandal.