Most Americans believe President Bush either lied or deliberately exaggerated evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction in order to justify war, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Barely half -- 52 percent -- now believe Bush is "honest and trustworthy," down seven points since late October and his worst showing since the question was first asked in March 1999. At his best, in the summer of 2002, Bush was viewed as honest by 71 percent. The survey found that while nearly seven in 10 think Bush "honestly believed" Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, 54 percent thought Bush exaggerated or lied about pre-war intelligence.
Fifty percent of Americans approve of the job he is doing, the lowest level of his presidency in the Post-ABC poll and down 8 percentage points from January. The survey found that, for the first time since the war ended, fewer than half of Americans -- 48 percent -- believe the war was worth fighting, down 8 points from last month. Fifty percent said the war was not worth it.
In a head-to-head matchup, Kerry beat Bush, 52 percent to 43 percent, among registered voters polled by the Post.
In a sign that Bush has been set back by recent controversies over Iraqi weapons, his National Guard record and the federal budget, the number of Americans viewing him as a "strong leader" has slipped to 61 percent, down 6 points from December and the lowest level since the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Bush's rating on handling the economy stood at 44 percent, down 7 percentage points, with nearly half of the public saying they are worse off now than they were three years ago when Bush became president. Six in 10 disapprove of the job Bush is doing creating jobs. On education, 47 percent said they approve of the job Bush is doing, down 8 points from January. And his handling of health care also has fallen.
But the president's declining ratings related to Iraq were most striking. Approval of his handling of the situation there has fallen to 47 percent, down eight points in the past three weeks. About half of Americans -- 51 percent -- said they would prefer a report evaluating the accuracy and use of pre-war intelligence before the election, while 35 percent favor what Bush has ordered: a broader study of the overall accuracy of U.S. intelligence gathering operations that reports its findings after the election.
Three in four Democrats said Bush either lied or exaggerated about what was known about Iraqi's weapons while an equally large majority of Republicans said the president did neither. Slightly more than half of all independents believed Bush had mislead the public about Iraqi's weapons cache.
