
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 1, 1991                   TAG: 9103010766
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

POLLS SHOW OVERWHELMING APPROVAL OF BUSH ACTIONS

President Bush has the approval of 91 percent of Americans, according to a poll released today. That's more than any other president since polls have been taken this century.

Another poll found Bush had 85 percent approval.

A third poll found that most Americans want Iraqi President Saddam Hussein forced out of power and tried for war crimes and that some wish him dead.

A USA Today poll of 622 adults taken Thursday found 91 percent approval for Bush's handling of the presidency. It also found that if Bush ran for re-election now, 72 percent would vote for him regardless of who ran against him. Twelve percent would vote for someone else, the poll found.

Since the taking of modern opinion polls, only President Truman came close to Bush's approval reflected in the USA Today survey. A 1945 Gallup Poll taken in June 1945, just weeks after Germany's surrender in World War II, registered an 87 percent approval rating for Truman's performance in the White House.

The poll taken by telephone by Gordon S. Black Corp. also found 78 percent of respondents have a great deal of confidence in military leaders, compared with 25 percent for Congress and 22 percent for the news media.

Of 778 adults questioned Wednesday night in an ABC telephone poll, 75 percent said Saddam should be ousted.

Thirteen percent said they thought Saddam would remain president of Iraq, 35 percent said he would be overthrown but remain free, 28 percent said he would be assassinated and 21 percent said he would be tried for war crimes.

Forty-five percent said they prefer that Saddam be tried for war crimes, 29 percent said they would like him to be assassinated and 24 percent want him to leave office on his own.

The poll was taken partly before and partly after Bush announced a cease-fire in the Persian Gulf War.

An NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll taken Wednesday and Thursday showed that 85 percent of Americans approve of how Bush is doing his job.

Eleven percent of the 800 registered voters polled disapproved of Bush.

Among Democrats, 76 percent approved of the job Bush is doing while 96 percent of Republicans did. In a reversal of an earlier poll, 66 percent of blacks approved of Bush's job performance. Eighty-eight percent of men responding and 82 percent of the women approved of the president.

Each of the polls had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

by CNB