Approval for Bush, doubts on key issues (49% approval rating)

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6719733/

More than a month after President Bush won re-election and Republicans picked up seats in the House and Senate, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that a plurality of Americans approves of the job Bush is doing as president. But these Americans also have doubts about his plan to reform Social Security and whether the situation in Iraq will come to a successful conclusion.

According to the poll, conducted by Hart/McInturff, 49 percent of respondents say they approve of Bush’s job performance, compared with 44 percent who say they disapprove. That’s a slight change from the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Oct. 19, two weeks before the election, when 49 percent approved of Bush and 47 percent disapproved.

But his approval numbers don’t necessarily mean he has a mandate for some of his second-term legislative goals, such as reforming Social Security. The survey shows that only 35 percent believe Bush has a mandate to allow workers to invest some of their Social Security taxes into the stock market, while 51 percent say he doesn’t have a mandate to do this. Democratic pollster Jay Campbell of Peter D. Hart Research Associates says these numbers won’t prohibit Bush and the Republicans from pushing ahead with their agenda on Social Security. “At the same time,” he said, “they will have a massive battle on their hands.”

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