NEW YORK, June 29 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush's public approval rating is at its lowest-ever level, a New York Times/CBS News poll published Tuesday indicates.
Bush scored only 42 percent approval, with 51 percent unhappy with his leadership. Those are the worst statistics since Bush took office in January 2001.
The nationwide poll of 1,053 adults, including 875 registered voters, was taken by telephone June 23 to June 27. It has a margin of sampling error of 3 percentage points.
While the poll was conducted before Monday's handover of power to an interim Iraqi government, 60 percent of respondents, including a majority of independents, said the war has not been worth the cost.
As well, 45 percent said they had an unfavorable opinion of Bush himself, again the most negative measure the Times/CBS Poll has found since he took office.
Pollsters say in the past 25 years presidents with job approval ratings below 50 percent in the spring of election years have generally gone on to lose. Bush's father had a 34 percent job approval rating at this time in 1992.
