One of the most notable features of polling about President Bush has been the intensity of the opposition to him.

Resident Fellow Karlyn Bowman

In a September NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 36 percent said they had "very negative" feelings about the president. Since September 2005, more than three of every 10 respondents have expressed this view in the poll.

In the new poll, 23 percent had a "very positive" feeling about the president. His overall numbers were 42 percent positive, 49 percent negative.

In the meantime, ABC News asks respondents whether they approve or disapprove of the way the president is handling his job, then asks them whether they approve or disapprove strongly or somewhat. In the latest poll, 42 percent said they approved and 55 percent said they disapproved.

The poll found that the intensity of feeling was on the negative side as 43 percent disapproved strongly. Since June 2005, more than four in 10 have strongly disapproved of the job the president is doing.

An Aug. 30-Sept. 2 Opinion Research Corporation/CNN poll found that 30 percent thought Bush should be impeached and removed from office, while 69 percent thought he should not be.

CNN and Time asked the identical question seven times about former President Bill Clinton. In two September 1998 polls, 29 percent (the highest response) thought he should be impeached and removed. Bush’s current ratings are similar to Clinton’s in the fall of 1994.

Congressional Leaders. In an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 50 percent of respondents didn’t know of or weren’t familiar with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Of the remainder, 15 percent had positive feelings and 23 percent negative ones.

As for Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), 55 percent were unfamiliar with him, with 13 percent positive and 15 percent negative.

Fifty-seven percent didn’t recognize the name of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) or have an opinion about him; 10 percent were positive, 18 percent negative.

And 38 percent were unfamiliar with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), while 21 percent had positive feelings about him and 23 percent had negative ones.

Congressional Decision Time. One-quarter of likely voters told Fox News/Opinion Dynamics interviewers in mid-September that they already had decided whom they would vote for in November. Twenty-six percent of Democrats and 31 percent of Republicans said they have made up their minds.

Confidence in Rumsfeld. Thirty-one percent of respondents in a Sept. 8-11 NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll had positive feelings about Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, while 43 percent had negative ones (including 32 percent who felt very negatively about him). In January, feelings about Rumsfeld were 39 percent positive and 34 percent negative. In the September poll, 44 percent thought he should resign because of his handling of the war, while 46 percent did not.

In a Sept. 5-7 ABC News poll, 42 percent approved of the way Rumsfeld was handling his job, with 49 percent disapproving. His current rating is slightly better than his rating in December, when 35 percent approved and 53 percent disapproved. In a Sept. 8-11 Harris Poll, 38 percent rated him as doing an "excellent" or "good" job compared to 58 percent who said he was doing only a "fair" or "poor" job.

Gasoline Prices. With the recent decline in gasoline prices, the issue has lost some of its potency, polls show. In a Sept. 5-7 ABC News poll, 5 percent of respondents cited gas prices as the top issue driving in their vote, down from 15 percent in August.

In a Sept. 6-10 Pew Research Center Poll, 7 percent mentioned energy, gas or heating prices as the most important issue facing the country, down from 14 percent in May. When people were asked in the same poll about how often 11 different topics come up in their conversations with friends and family, 75 percent said gas prices came up frequently. More than 70 percent of Democrats and Republicans talked about them frequently. The next closest topics nationally were Iraq, the economy and education. For each of those three topics, 54 percent of respondents said they discussed the issue frequently.

Imprisoning Suspected Terrorists. In a September NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 54 percent of respondents said the Bush administration had taken the right course of action in its imprisonment and treatment of suspected terrorists and foreign fighters, with 34 percent saying the administration had gone too far.

A Royal Heir. In March and April, when the Pew Research Center interviewed Japanese adults about whether there should be a change in the Imperial Household Act to allow females to ascend to the imperial throne, 76 percent were in favor and only 19 percent were opposed. Men were more opposed than women were, at 26 percent compared to 13 percent.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has endorsed a change in the law. But the birth of a male heir in early September reduced the urgency of the issue, leaving the fate of the proposal unknown.

Karlyn H. Bowman is a resident fellow at AEI.