SUPPORT FOR BUSH DIPS QUITE A BIT IN FLORIDA

Florida, like much of the South, tends to be more conservative. But while President Bush's approval rating dips to new lows nationally, his support in the Sunshine State dips significantly as well, according to the most recent Florida Poll conducted by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group in Florida October 28 - November 2.

The poll showed that only 40 percent of the respondants said they approved of the way the president was doing his job, compared to 62 percent two years ago. Another 55 percent said they disapproved of Bush's job performance compared to 31 percent in 2002, and five percent did not have an opinion (the 2002 figure was seven percent).

Support for the occupation in Iraq has dropped, as these numbers show:

2002 POLL:
USA did the right thing in invading Iraq: 49.4%
USA should have stayed out of Iraq: 43.6
Undecided: 7.0%

2006 POLL:
USA did the right thing in invading Iraq: 37.4%
USA should have stayed out of Iraq: 56.5
Undecided: 6.1%

Needless to say that Republicans continue to support our efforts in Iraq, with 64 percent saying that the US did the right thing, and 34 percent saying that we should have stayed out. Sixty percent of registered Republicans say that we should remain in Iraq as long as it takes, with 25 percent saying we should leave the Middle Eastern nation as soon as possible.

Comparatively, registered Democrats strongly responded --- 71 percent --- that we should not have gone in to depose Saddam Hussein. That compares to 20 percent who said the US did the right thing.

The survey was of 500 registered voters considered "likely" to vote in last week's general election through a series of questions regarding their voting habits. The telephone numbers used in the survey were formed at random by computer to insure that each area of the state was represented by it's population. Results were weighted to insure that party registration and gender were represented in proportion to their true populations across Florida. The margin of error is plus or minus four percentage points.