Prince poll discovers students disapprove of President Bush

A Daily Princetonian poll conducted last week found a majority of undergraduates disapprove of President Bush's performance as U.S. president and nearly half believe the situation in Iraq was not worth going to war over.

In the poll of 213 students, 28 percent of students expressed approval for Bush's performance as president, while 58 percent disapproved.

The level of support for the president among University students is significantly lower than among the American population at large, according to recent polls. A Gallup poll conducted last week found that 54 percent of Americans approve of Bush's job performance and 43 percent disapprove.

The level of support for Bush at the University is also notably lower than among college students nationwide. A poll conducted by Harvard's Institute of Politics in late October found that 61 percent of undergraduates nationwide approved of Bush's performance as president.

The poll also found varsity athletes are significantly more likely than other students to approve of Bush's job performance and to believe the war in Iraq was worthwhile.

Evan Baehr '05, president of the College Republicans, said he believes Bush's approval rating has been affected by publicity for Democratic candidates on campus.

"The recent proliferation of coverage on Democratic presidential candidates on campus has skewed the moderate voters, but only temporarily," Baehr said in an email. "In the spring, when Bush begins engaging the issues and the campaign is under way, Princeton will be much more evenly split."

Owen Conroy '05, president of the College Democrats, said in an email he believes the poll results demonstrate University students have a "very strong grasp of political and global issues."

"As students who engage in thoughtful study of world affairs every day, Princeton's population has wisely rejected the policies of George W. Bush," he said.

Thirty-seven percent of University undergraduates polled said the situation in Iraq was worth going to war over, and 48 percent said it was not worth going to war over.

According to the poll, the level of support for the war in Iraq is also notably lower among University students than among Americans at large. A Gallup poll conducted last week found that 54 percent of Americans think the situation in Iraq was worth going to war over and 44 percent think it was not worth going to war over.

A 'Prince' poll in April found 60 percent of students supported the war in Iraq, 23 percent higher than the current level of belief that the war was worthwhile.

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Several factors have contributed to the decline in support for the war in the last seven months, said David Konieczkowski '06, an editor of the campus publication American Foreign Policy.

"The American people really believed that we would go in and find stocks of weapons of mass destruction," he said. The failure as of yet to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has been a "major factor" in leading to the declined level of support for the war, partly because it has led to questions about the validity of prewar intelligence, he said.

The continuing "steady trickle of [American] casualties" in Iraq and the media's "tendency to report the bad news first" have also helped lead to a decrease in belief that the war was worthwhile, Konieczkowski added.

Gabe Collins '05, a publisher of American Foreign Policy, said that the failure to capture Saddam Hussein has also played a role in the public's perception of the war. The capture or killing of Hussein would decrease the level of resistance in Sunni areas of Iraq and would "hopefully allow nation-building to proceed more smoothly," he said.

"That could end up producing a renewed groundswell of support for nation-building in Iraq," Collins added.

According to the poll, the level of support for both Bush and the war in Iraq is significantly higher among varsity athletes than among other students.

Forty-eight percent of varsity athletes polled approved of Bush's performance as president, while 39 percent disapproved. Among the students who were not varsity athletes, 23 percent approved of Bush's performance and 63 percent disapproved.

Forty-eight percent of varsity athletes said the situation in Iraq was worth going to war over, while 35 percent said it was not worth going to war over. Among other students, 34 percent said the situation in Iraq was worth going to war over, while 52 percent said it was not.

Baehr said he was not surprised by these differences.

"I have always considered athletes to be a conservative and Republican population on campus that goes unheard," he said in an email.

Baehr said the higher level of support for the war among athletes is unsurprising because, he said, "athletes can better appreciate a powerful military and the relevance of strength."

"After all, when is the last time you saw a lacrosse player argue his way to victory?" he said in an email.

Kate Reid '04, a member of the women's cross-country team, said she was surprised by the results and has not had the impression that varsity athletes were more conservative than other students.

"It has seemed to me quite the opposite," she said.

David Silver '04, a member of the men's cross-country and track and field teams, similarly said that he was "surprised that the views of student-athletes are different than those of other students on this issue."

"It seems as though student-athletes have opinions that are more in touch with those of average Americans than do other Princeton students," Silver added.

He said the poll results show varsity athletes add to student life, countering the arguments put forward by University president emeritus William Bowen in his recent book "Reclaiming the Game."

"It is worthwhile to have a body of students on campus whose views are similar to those of average Americans," Silver said. "Maybe student-athletes provide that perspective."

The margin of error for the overall poll results is six percent, and the margin of error for the results involving only varsity athletes is 14 percent.

For more information on the poll, see Page Three.