Likely voters are more critical of Clinton, poll finds

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, September 30) -- A new poll suggests that people who are likely to vote in November tend to be more critical of President Bill Clinton's conduct in the Lewinsky affair.

The survey, by The Washington Post and ABC News, found the general public believes, by a 55-42 percent margin, that Congress should drop its probe of Clinton's sexual relationship with the former White House intern and whether he lied under oath about it. But among likely voters, 53 percent said Congress should hold hearings, the Post-ABC survey found.

The survey of 1,505 people included 715 likely voters. It has a margin of sampling error of +/- 2.5 percentage points for the entire sample and +/- 4 percentage points for the subsample of likely voters.

Likely voters in the poll are defined as registered voters who say they are certain to vote this fall, are interested in the congressional campaigns and voted in 1996.

As other recent surveys, the Post-ABC poll found continuing opposition among the public to Clinton's impeachment and removal from office. Sixty-six percent of the public and 60 percent of likely voters oppose that, based on what they now know, the survey found.

For all his troubles, Clinton continues to enjoy good job performance ratings. Sixty-three percent of those surveyed approve of the job he is doing as president, compared to 28 percent who disapprove.

Likely voters are more critical of Clinton, poll finds

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Wednesday, September 30, 1998