What It Takes

Public Says Bush Has Smarts to Lead Nation

A majority of people surveyed say George W. Bush's knowledge of foreign policy is adequate for him to serve as president of the United States.

Analysis By Gary Langer, ABCNEWS.com

Nov. 15 Nearly six in 10 Americans think George W. Bush knows enough about world affairs to serve effectively as president whoever Pervaiz Musharraf is.

Bush failed in a pop quiz two weeks ago to name the leaders of three foreign nations or republics Pakistan, India, and Chechnya. He got just one answer right: the leader of Taiwan. He also said Musharraf, who seized power in Pakistan in a military coup, "is going to bring stability to the country and I think thats good news for the subcontinent."

While critics pounced, most Americans dont share their concern. In a new ABCNEWS.com poll, 59 percent of respondents think the Texas governor does have sufficient knowledge of foreign affairs to serve effectively as president; 36 percent think not. (Those numbers echo the Bush-vs.-Al Gore horse race, 55-39 percent, in an ABCNEWS poll released Oct. 31.)

Partisanship is a prime factor in evaluations of Bushs knowledge. Eighty-one percent of Republicans think the GOP front-runner is sufficiently versed in world affairs; that falls to 54 percent of independents and 41 percent of Democrats. At the same time, there are many more Democrats who give Bush a passing grade than there are Republicans who fail him.

There arent many differences among other groups. Even among know-it-all college graduates (about a quarter of the public), 62 percent say Bush knows enough.

Bushs rating on knowledge of foreign affairs isnt as strong as his scores on several personal qualities tested in the Oct. 31 poll, notably leadership. But "handling foreign affairs" is less crucial to voters than many other issues; it ranked 14th out of a list of 16.

Methodology

This ABCNEWS.com survey was conducted by telephone Nov. 10-14 among a random national sample of 1,007 adults. The results have a three-point error margin. Field work was conducted by ICR-International Communications Research of Media, Pa.

Gary Langer is the head of ABCNEWS polling unit.