Poll: Clinton Gets A Bounce
Most people who watched give his State of Union speech high marks
WASHINGTON (Jan. 27) -- President Bill Clinton, who sketched out a wide-ranging legislative agenda in his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, got a positive reaction from people who tuned in, according to a poll taken immediately afterward.
In the CNN/USA Today/Gallup survey, 84 percent said they had a very positive or somewhat positive reaction to the speech, and people who watched came away with more confidence in Clinton's ability to carry out his presidential duties. Clinton made no mention of the allegations that broke last week that he had a sexual relationship with a White House intern, then encouraged her to lie about it under oath.
The new poll, conducted immediately after Clinton's speech, surveyed only people who watched. The survey polled 488 adults and has a margin of sampling error of +/- 5 percentage points.
Here are the questions and results:
Question 1: How confident are you in Bill Clinton's abilities to carry out his duties as president -- very confident, somewhat confident, not too confident, or not confident at all?
Confident in Clinton's Ability to Carry Out His Duties |
Before speech After speech |
|
Those Who Watched Speech 66% 78% |
Question 2: Overall, what kind of a moral example do you think Bill Clinton sets as president -- very good, good, poor or very poor?
Clinton Sets Good Or Very Good Moral Example |
Before speech After speech |
|
Those Who Watched Speech 35% 49% |
Question 3: What was your overall reaction to Clinton's speech tonight -- very positive, somewhat positive, somewhat negative, or very negative?
Reaction to Speech |
Positive Negative |
|
Those Who Watched Speech 84% 16% |
Reaction to Speech |
Very positive Somewhat positive Negative |
|
Those Who Watched Speech 52% 32% 16 |
Question 4: Next, thinking about the federal budget which Congress and President Clinton will work on during the coming year, do you expect that the budget will be balanced, meaning the government will spend the same amount of money as it takes in, or the budget will not be balanced, meaning the government will spend more money than it takes in?
Do You Think Budget Will Be Balanced? |
Yes No |
|
Those Who Watched Speech 52% 45% |
Question 5: Which of the following statements comes closer to how you feel about the new programs that Clinton proposed tonight: they would cost too much money and give the government too much power, or they would help solve important problems without costing too much money or giving the government too much power?
Clinton Programs Will Cost Too Much |
Agree Disagree |
|
Those Who Watched Speech 38% 58% |
Question 6: Thinking about the reasons why you watched President Clinton's speech this evening, would you say you only watched in order to hear what Clinton had to say about the state of the nation and his proposals for the coming year, or you watched in part to see what would happen and how Clinton handled the situation in light of the recent controversy?
Did You Watch Speech To See How Clinton Handled the Situation? |
Yes No Both equally |
|
Those Who Watched Speech 67% 25% 7% |
|