| Cindy Sheehan: 31% Favorable 39% Unfavorable | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Survey of 1,000 Adults August 31- Sept 1, 2005
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September 6, 2005--Americans today have a slightly less favorable opinion of Cindy Sheehan than they did a few weeks ago. Today, the grieving mother who maintained an anti-War protest outside of President Bush's ranch, is viewed favorably by 31% of Americans. That's down from 35% in mid-August. Thirty-nine percent (39%) now have an unfavorable view, little changed from 38% in the earlier survey. Sheehan's numbers are a bit more positive than Michael Moore's ratings (23% favorable) and roughly comparable to Senator Ted Kennedy (32% favorable). However, as an elected official with very high name recognition, more people have an unfavorable opinion of Kennedy than Sheehan. Among those with close friends or family members serving in Iraq, Sheehan is viewed favorably by 29% and unfavorably by 48%. [More Below]
The survey also found that 38% say now is the time to withdraw troops from Iraq. That's essentially unchanged from 39% a couple of weeks ago. Nationally, 46% are opposed to withdrawing troops from Iraq at this time. That figure includes 55% of those with friends and family serving in Iraq at this time. In general, people continue to see in Sheehan what they want to see. People who think we should withdraw troops from Iraq now have a positive opinion of Sheehan (58% favorable, 12% unfavorable). Those who do not think we should withdraw troops at this time have a negative view (10% favorable, 68% unfavorable). Fifty-five percent (54%) of Americans say they are following the Sheehan story somewhat or very closely. By way of comparison, 88% are closely following stories of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Following our earlier survey on Sheehan, many of her supporters e-mailed to suggest that there must be something wrong with the way we asked the question. For both surveys, the question wording was very straightforward--"Do you have a favorable or an unfavorable opinion of Cindy Sheehan." The question before it was "How closely have you followed news stories about Cindy Sheehan, the woman who was protesting the war along the road to President Bush's ranch?" Question wording and demographic cross-tabs available for Premium Members. Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information. Rasmussen Reports was the nation's most accurate polling firm during the Presidential election and the only one to project both Bush and Kerry's vote total within half a percentage point of the actual outcome. During Election 2004, RasmussenReports.com was also the top-ranked public opinion research site on the web. We had twice as many visitors as our nearest competitor and nearly as many as all competitors combined. Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade. To keep up with our latest releases, be sure to visit the Rasmussen Reports Home Page.
The telephone survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports August 31- Sept 1, 2005. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. 37% of survey respondents were Republican, 37% Democrat, and 26% unaffiliated (see Methodology) |
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