With two weeks to go in the Presidential campaign, 64% say that President Bush is politically conservative while 53% see Senator Kerry as politically liberal. The current figures are two points shy of the highest level recorded all year for each man.

This data is from a Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of 1,000 Likely Voters conducted October 19, 2004. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

The number seeing the President as politically conservative peaked at 66% shortly after the Republican National Convention. It has been at 60% or higher every time we asked the question since the Convention.

As for Senator Kerry, the number seeing him as politically liberal peaked at 55% following the second debate.

The number who see the President as conservative today is 16 percentage points higher than it was when John Kerry became the Democratic frontrunner. The number who see Kerry as liberal today is also 16 points higher than it was when Kerry became his party's likely nominee.

After John Kerry won the New Hampshire Primary, a narrow plurality of voters saw the Senator as politically moderate (see table at right). At that time, just 48% saw the President as politically conservative while 45% said he was moderate or liberal (see table at left).

Today, as they have all year, most conservative voters (67%) believe that the President is politically conservative.

Just 25% of liberal voters believe that Senator Kerry shares their view. Most liberal voters (61%) believe that the Senator is politically moderate.