Poll: Bush decisive, Kerry intelligent

WASHINGTON – Voters see President Bush as decisive, likable and able to inspire optimism, an Associated Press poll found. They view Democrat John Kerry as intelligent and compassionate.

On the negative side, a majority of people said Bush is arrogant, and fewer than half said Kerry is decisive.

Presidential historian Charles Jones said he thought the perception by two-thirds of voters that Bush is decisive could help him in November.

“This election is a lot about Bush, whether to keep him in office,” Jones said. “And decisiveness is one of the key characteristics of leadership.”

About half or slightly less in various polls approve of Bush’s performance on Iraq and the economy, slightly more on terrorism.

The poll asked voters whether they would or would not use each of seven words – likable, intelligent, decisive, compassionate, honest, arrogant and wealthy – to describe Bush and then Kerry.

While 60 percent said Kerry was compassionate, about the same number, 59 percent, said that of Bush – a finding that was surprising to public opinion analyst Karlyn Bowman of the American Enterprise Institute.

“The compassion number surprised me for Bush because we’ve heard a lot about erosion in that area,” she said.

A majority of voters, 52 percent, said Bush is arrogant, while 44 percent viewed Kerry that way.

On several qualities, the two were very closely matched, such as honesty and compassion. Bush only had a slight edge on being likable.

Slightly more people described Bush as wealthy, although both candidates are generally viewed as well-to-do.

Both men are multimillionaires.

When voters were asked which of the candidates makes them feel more optimistic about America, however, Bush had an edge. Half, 50 percent, chose Bush and 44 percent chose Kerry.

The AP-Ipsos poll of 804 registered voters was taken July 5-7 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.