Two in Five Americans Anticipate Obama Will Do a Good Job in Iraq, Afghanistan

ROCHESTER, N.Y.-(Business Wire)-February 5, 2009 - Many U.S. adults are cautiously optimistic about Obama’s handling of Iraq and Afghanistan even though they remain skeptical of the situation in those countries. This compares to the strong majorities who in Bush’s final days as president gave him negative ratings on his handling of these wars.

These are the some of the results of The Harris Poll®, a new nationwide survey of 2,848 U.S. adults surveyed online between January 12 and 19, 2009 by Harris Interactive^®. Other findings include:

Over four in ten adults think that Obama will do either an excellent or pretty good job on Iraq (45%) and Afghanistan (42%). Three in ten (30%) think he will do only fair or poor job. Not surprisingly, but a substantial number – over a quarter (25% on Iraq and 28% on Afghanistan) – are not sure of the job he will do.
Just under half (47%) think that taking military action against Iraq was the wrong thing to do with only 34% thinking it was the right thing. These feelings have not changed significantly since Jan 2005.
Further, as compared to Iraq, the situation in Afghanistan is perceived to be getting worse for US troops. In May 2007 9% thought the situation in Afghanistan was worse than in Iraq; that figure has quadrupled to 35%. Conversely, 36% in May 2007 thought things were better for US troops in Afghanistan as compared to Iraq. Today, that has dropped to 9%.

Bush’s Final Ratings on Iraq and Afghanistan

As George Bush leaves office his ratings on handling Iraq and Afghanistan are very low. On Iraq, by a 62% to 35% margin, a majority of US adults thought President Bush did an only fair or poor job. And concerning Afghanistan his numbers are a similar margin as 63% say he did a negative job and only 29% give him positive ratings.

The 35% positive on his handling of Iraq actually reflected a positive upturn for Bush and represented the highest he received since January 2006 but it is obviously a far cry from the high water mark of 67% positive he received back in April 2003.

So What?

Obviously, President Obama hasn’t been in office long enough to have much impact on the U.S. handling of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, so the latest results are more of a reflection of what many U.S. adults hope Obama will do. The public is willing to give him a honeymoon period in which to deal with both wars, but given Americans’ lengthy widespread pessimism on how things are going in Afghanistan and Iraq, American’s patience might be thin and that honeymoon may be brief. Then the public will expect the Obama Administration to quickly make changes.

Methodology

The Harris Poll^® was conducted online within the United States January 12 and 19, 2009 among 2,848 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online. Full data tables and methodology are available at www.harrisinteractive.com.

These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

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About Harris Interactive

Harris Interactive is a global leader in custom market research. With a long and rich history in multimodal research, powered by our science and technology, we assist clients in achieving business results. Harris Interactive serves clients globally through our North American, European and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com

Harris Interactive Inc. 02/09

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