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CNN LIVE AT DAYBREAK

America's Voice: Fear of Terrorism

Aired January 8, 2004 - 06:36   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Some fascinating new poll numbers for you now. Are Americans afraid of terror?
We take you live to Princeton, New Jersey, and Gallup Poll editor-in-chief Frank Newport.

Take it away -- Frank.

FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP POLL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Indeed, Carol, perhaps because of the orange alert and the fact that Americans perceive that the government is on the job, fear of being the victim of a terrorist attack is actually as low as we have seen it since 9/11 by just a couple of points, but it's still down.

This dark shape here is the percent of Americans who say they are worried, and it's gone up and down over the months and years since 9/11. But now, we're at only 28 percent on the right-hand side there over our latest CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup Poll, and as I mentioned, by just a couple of points. That's the lowest we have seen.

So, certainly whatever happened over the holidays with all of the stopped flights and all of that type of thing, it seems to have convinced Americans at least that perhaps they're safer rather than being more worried about being the victim of an attack.

And also along the same lines, we've got a significant majority of Americans, when asked, are you confident that the war on terrorism can be won, 67 percent say they're at least somewhat confident that indeed that will be the case -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, let's talk a little bit about the economy, because you have some interesting numbers on that.

NEWPORT: Indeed, first of all, satisfaction with the way things are going, I wanted to show you, is a real key measure. It's kind of the right track/wrong track measures, some pollsters call it. For an incumbent seeking re-election, you'd like that to be above 50 percent. Notice how that's really swung up and down, depending on whether we've gone to war or not in the United States.

But on the right-hand side there, that's 55 percent. Starting the new year, over half of Americans are satisfied in general with the way things are going in the U.S., and that's a lot better than below 50 percent for an incumbent, of course.

And part of the reason that that's high is the economy. We can't tell you how much Americans have changed on a dime in terms of their expectations of what's happening.

Last year at this time, Carol, we would have been telling you that most Americans said the economy is getting worse. Look at the last five times we've asked it. We're now up to 66 percent of Americans saying the economy is getting better. Those are very optimistic numbers.

Not quite so optimistic when we asked Americans to rate the current economy. That's still a little below 50 percent, giving it an excellent or a good rating.

But, Carol, look at the trajectory, the same idea. Every time we ask this question recently, Americans have become more optimistic.

So, everything I'm telling you here, Carol, basically shows a more optimistic American population.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Frank Newport live from Princeton, New Jersey.

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