Bush put on the defensive

By Rachel Clarke
BBC News Online in Washington

The White House is waging a new war to win back public opinion, which seems to be slipping away.

Polls suggest Mr Bush's standing is lower than before the Iraq war

President George W Bush used a speech to veterans to issue a rallying cry to Americans that the "hard task" ahead in Iraq was worth the effort.

His promises that American troops were doing a vital job not only for Iraq but for the safety of the United States followed similar public speeches by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Separately, Attorney General John Ashcroft is touring the country to promote the controversial anti-terror measures of the Patriot Act.

But the latest poll evidence makes uncomfortable reading, with a survey for Newsweek magazine finding more voters would like to see someone else winning the White House rather than a Bush re-election. It is the first such result since the question began to be asked nearly a year ago.

The Newsweek and other polls highlight particular concern about the handling of Iraq. But the situation there is only one of a raft of issues which is hurting the White House, according to Professor Leonard Steinhorn, who specialises in politics and the presidency at American University.

The support for President Bush tends to be more circumstantial than personal Leonard Steinhorn, American University

He argues that public opinion is returning to the ambivalence prior to the 11 September attacks, before President Bush became the moral leader of a nation targeted at home by terrorists and before he became a war leader in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"The support for President Bush tends to be more circumstantial than personal," Professor Steinhorn told BBC News Online.

"The war in Iraq and the quick victory helped to continue to illuminate the glow around him [from his post 11-September leadership].

"But now the same questions that dogged him before in terms of his sense of direction for the country, the particular policies he oversees, they are beginning to come back."

Daily damage

While polls offer only a snapshot of opinion at a particular time, they have value as indicators of whether perceptions are beginning to take root in people's minds, Professor Steinhorn says.

Visitors at the White House give their verdicts on President Bush

In pictures

The "drip-drip" effect of almost daily reports of US casualties in Iraq would have an impact on people's views of the action in Iraq and Mr Bush's role in it.

And while other matters such as the failure so far to find any weapons of mass destruction and concern about the intelligence used to justify the invasion receive less attention than in Britain, the questions gnaw away at people, Professor Steinhorn says.

Other issues, such as the federal deficit, the broader economy and environmental issues could all come into play in the months before the presidential election.

Professor Steinhorn says there are clearly things many voters like about Mr Bush's personality, such as being seen as a decisive leader when the nation needed that rather than hand-wringing, and of being a man in control.

HAVE YOUR SAY It takes a great deal of resolve to go against world and public opinion Brent Taylor, Alaska, USA Send us your comments

But those strengths could become weaknesses. "He can't control that our soldiers are getting killed, he can't control that interest rates will go up because of the deficit and he can't control what is going on in Afghanistan."

Mr Bush's re-election chances will also be affected by the strength of the opposition, said Professor Steinhorn, who has advised several Democrat presidential campaigns.

It will be months before the Democrats identify their nominee for the White House and circumstances could change yet again.

Triumph 'mocked'

But the glow of electoral invincibility has left Mr Bush and the situation in Iraq could taint him further.

In a strongly worded editorial on Wednesday, the New York Times noted the disheartening milestone reached with the killing of a US soldier taking the number of troop deaths in the post-war period above the death toll for the conflict itself.

"That grim statistic mocks President Bush's triumphant appearance aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln on May 1, when he declared an end to major combat operations," it said.

The paper urged the administration to seek and secure far greater involvement from other countries and international organisations such as the United Nations, saying that might make Americans more willing to support the long-term operation it said was necessary in Iraq.