WASHINGTON, March 27 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush's handling of the war on terror was rated "poor" by nearly half the participants in a UPI-Zogby International poll.
A total of 48.9 percent of the 4,824 participants in a Zogby interactive poll gave the president a grade of "poor" in handling the global war on terror. Another 10.7 percent said Bush's efforts were "fair," while 26.3 percent said "good" and 14 percent "excellent."
There was the predictable partisan spilt on the issue: 90.3 percent of self-described Democrats gave Bush a "poor" grade and 82.2 percent of Republicans rated him "good" (52.9 percent) or "excellent" (29.3 percent) on handling the global war on terror.
But members of the U.S. armed forces -- often on the front lines of the terror war -- were only slightly less tough on Bush than the overall sample. Some 42.2 percent of military participants in the poll said the president's handling of the war on terror was "poor," 11.1 percent said "fair," 29.7 percent rated him "good" and 16.7 percent "excellent."
The Zogby interactive poll was conducted March 14-16 and had a margin of error of 1.4 percentage points.
