MSNBC: Far fewer people find VP Dick Cheney "personally likeable"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

The Vice Squad
John Edwards may win in a popularity contest against Dick Cheney, but the two campaigns are tied as Bush’s approval ratings climb back up

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5411094/site/newsweek

July 10 - Although the John Kerry campaign enjoyed a rush of positive media coverage after announcing that John Edwards would be the Democratic candidate’s running mate, it is still locked in a dead heat with the Republican ticket, according to the first NEWSWEEK poll conducted since Edwards was tapped. Nearly 70 percent of all voters believe the selection of Edwards won’t make much difference in the outcome of the election, according to the poll. The survey also found that more voters think President George W. Bush will be re-elected than think Kerry will take the White House.

SNIP

Still, the poll suggests that most voters view Edwards as charismatic and caring, while far fewer people find Vice President Dick Cheney “personally likeable.” The poll results suggest that the president, whose approval ratings are back up after hitting an all-time low in May, may have an easier time getting re-elected if someone else were to fill the veep slot.

SNIP

Still, Edwards does beat Dick Cheney in a popularity contest, perhaps most importantly among independent voters. In a hypothetical race for vice president between Edwards and Cheney, 52 percent pick Edwards over Cheney, who gets just 41 percent of the vote. Cheney's last job as the head of Halliburton, the energy company that has won key defense contracts in Iraq, his continued assertion that Al Qaeda had links to Iraq and his insistence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction may have been factors in prompting four in 10 voters (42 percent) to reject a description of the vice president as “honest and ethical.” Half of all voters feel the vice president is someone who does not care about people like them (40 percent say he does), while 58 percent feel Edwards does care (22 percent do not). More than three-quarters (77 percent) of voters say they find Edwards “personally likeable,” a stark contrast to Cheney’s 49 percent and greater than even Kerry’s 60 percent.

SNIP

With the drumbeat of bad news from Iraq seeming to die down and the administration’s handover of sovereignty to the Iraqi people last month, the president’s job approval numbers are up slightly to 48 percent over the historic low it hit in May (42 percent). Nearly half (46 percent) still disapprove. That low-point in the president’s approval rating may have been a statistical blip during a week of unceasing bad and bloody news from the warfront in Iraq; with the bounce back up to the high 40s, the president’s approval rating is where it has been more of less consistently since January. The percentage of voters who express a favorable view of the president has also moved back to the halfway mark (51 percent) after dipping to 46 percent in May.

[progressivebydesign]

1. OMFG! They had to do a POLL to figure that out? N/T

[Cuban_Liberal]

2. 52 percent pick Edwards over Cheney, who gets just 41 percent of the vote

That's the number that has them scared...

[Eric J in MN]

3. 42% don't think Cheney is "honest and ethical"

From that article:

Cheney's last job as the head of Halliburton, the energy company that has won key defense contracts in Iraq, his continued assertion that Al Qaeda had links to Iraq and his insistence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction may have been factors in prompting four in 10 voters (42 percent) to reject a description of the vice president as “honest and ethical.”

[TA]

4. Cheney is as crooked as his teeth.

You would think someone in his position would have them straightened.

[Solly Mack]

5. Cheney "not personally likeable". Now there's an understatement

[LittleApple81]

6. They say that Bush*'s numbers are going back up. How can that

be? They said his low was a blip. I think it is a blipping shame his numbers go up... I think his "base" thinks we won in Iraq!