Solid majorities of Americans support changes in the nation's political system, want the power to recall elected officials and are angry about the way some things are going in this country
A week after California voters ousted a governor, a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll found an electorate nationwide that shares some of the discontent that fueled Arnold Schwarzenegger's election there.
The unease that voters express now is at almost precisely the same overall level that a similar survey found in January 1992. That was the start of a campaign that ousted the first President Bush and gave third-party contender Ross Perot 19% of the vote.
But that frustration isn't focused on the current President Bush or other elected officials, at least not yet. Bush scored a healthy job-approval rating of 56%, up from its low point of 50% last month.
"There is a general feeling that things aren't going right, but I'm not sure that people can quite put their finger on the cause," says Dan Glickman, director of Harvard's Institute of Politics. He is a former Democratic congressman and Cabinet secretary. He called anxiety over the economy and the war in Iraq "the recipe for the pot boiling over and taking it out on somebody, and the obvious person to take it out on is the president."
Matthew Dowd, a senior strategist for Bush's re-election campaign, disputes any comparison with the California race. "It's not an anger; it's just concern," he says. He notes that Americans nationwide continue to have high regard for Bush's leadership.
In the poll:
**Asked about the way things were going in the country, 59% said they were "angry about something" and 39% said they were generally content.
**Support for unspecified changes in the political system was strong: 17% in favor of a "complete overhaul" and another 33% backing major reforms. Just one in 10 said no reform was necessary.
**Four in 10 said a third major political party was needed.
**The close divide that marked the 2000 election hasn't changed. In the poll, 38% of registered voters said they definitely would vote for Bush and 38% said they would definitely vote against him. In the middle: 24% who haven't decided.
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