Poll: Americans Split Over President's Performance

Dec. 20, 2004 — -- The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll finds that President Bush's overall job approval rating is just below 50 percent, with 48 percent of Americans approving of his performance and 49 percent disapproving.

At 5 p.m. ET ABCNEWS.com will release more polling results: Public views on Iraq , President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

This rating is a continuation of the long-term, close division that has been evident in public assessments of Bush's performance -- essentially an even split -- across most of the past year. In one change, more respondents disapprove "strongly" (38 percent) than approve "strongly" (27 percent) of his performance. This is Bush's lowest "strong" approval since Sept. 11, 2001.

The president's rating is considerably weaker now than it was a year ago, when it was 11 points higher, and than two years ago, when it was 18 points higher.

This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted Dec. 16-19 among a random national sample of 1,004 adults. The results have a three-point error margin. Sampling, data collection and tabulation were done by TNS of Horsham, Pa.

See previous analyses in our Poll Vault.