| Just 26% Say US Changed for Better Since 9/11 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Survey of 1,000 Adults September 8-9, 2005
*All results based upon survey of 1,000 adults except Sept 10, 2004 survey. That was based upon survey of 1,000 Likely Voters. |
September 10, 2005--As the fourth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks approaches, just 26% of Americans say their nation has changed for the better since those attacks. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that 54% now believe those attacks changed America for the worse. These results are opposite of those from the first time we asked the question. In October 2001, 57% said America had changed for the better. Just 23% took the opposite view. In the initial sense of national unity, the number saying the nation changed for the better increased to 61% in January 2002. However, by the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks, doubts had increased. In September 2003, just 38% of Americans said that the nation had changed for the better. Last year, that number had fallen to 37%. Over the past year, belief that the nation has changed for the better since the terror attacks tumbled another eleven points. A related survey found a sharp decline in the number of Americans who believe their nation is a good role model for the rest of the world. Just 35% of Americans believe the USA is safer today than it was before the 9-11 attacks. [More Below] Republicans are now evenly divided on the question of whether America has changed for better or worse. Four years ago, the President's party strongly believed the nation had changed for the better. Today, by a 67% to 12% margin, Democrats believe the nation has changed for the worse. Four years ago, they were more evenly divided than Republicans but a slight majority of Harry Reid's party said the nation had changed for the better. Fifty-one percent (51%) of Americans say that George W. Bush did a good or an excellent job in responding to the terror attacks of 9/11. That's down from 56% a year ago. Among Democrats, just 26% say the President did a good or an excellent job in responding to 9/11. Another 28% give Bush a "fair" rating while 42% say he did a poor job in responding to the 9/11 attacks. Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information. Rasmussen Reports was the nation's most accurate polling firm during the Presidential election and the only one to project both Bush and Kerry's vote total within half a percentage point of the actual outcome. During Election 2004, RasmussenReports.com was also the top-ranked public opinion research site on the web. We had twice as many visitors as our nearest competitor and nearly as many as all competitors combined. Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade. To keep up with our latest releases, be sure to visit the Rasmussen Reports Home Page.
The telephone survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted by Rasmussen Reports September 8-9, 2005. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 4.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence (see Methodology) |
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