[Carol Lin, Cnn Anchor:] Right now, we are going to play on the run for the presidency and voter attitudes. They combine this hour to give us an idea of how people feel about the November election and where the candidates stand. Frank Newport is editor-in-chief of the Gallup Poll, and he joins us with the latest results this morning in his quiz. Good morning, Frank.
[Frank Newport, Editor-in-chief, Gallup Poll:] Good morning, Carol. We won't quiz you, but we will give you some information on where the public stands going into the Republican Convention, based on our most recent poll just finished one or two nights ago. First of all, in the basic horse race, which we of course monitor to see where the candidates stand, Bush is up. He's been up, he has been down. Generally, Bush has been ahead in every poll we have conducted for the last two years. In our most recent poll, he is back up now to 50-39 percent among likely voters, back where he was about a month ago. Good news for the GOP, you would always rather go in to your convention ahead than tied or actually behind. Ralph Nader, by the way, as you can see, is down at 4 percent. Buchanan now just gets 1 percent among our likely voters. There is a gender gap. This is kind of the fabled gender gap, still operative. You can see, among men, Bush, the GOP does very well; among women, they are tied. You can see, I think, in the convention, the Republicans trying to really appeal to women because they would like to neutralize the usual Democratic advantage in women, in order to try to win in November, as they are currently doing right now. Now, things, of course, can change. The Democrats are hoping that as people focus more on this election, they will change their minds and come around more so to Gore than we've been seeing in our polling. This is how much thought have you been giving to the election? Going all the way back to last September. It peeked at 50 percent during primaries. And in our recent poll, it is down to about 42 percent. So it is down. We do expect that to go up during the convention. But interestingly, even in October, this number usually will only be up at about 60 percent overall. So it doesn't have a lot of room to go, 40 percent not playing very close attention. Now, the GOP will focus on Bush's record as governor of Texas. But the Democrats have been focusing on that, as well, in a more negative way, and that may be having some impact. Way back in September, 68 percent approved of Bush's performance as governor of Texas. Not a lot of people knew a lot about it probably. Now, in our most recent poll, that is actually down to 54 percent; disapproval is up. So what it tells us is, that Bush is actually less stellar now, in terms of the public's perception of how he is doing there, and that is probably something we will see the Democrats continue to hit on. That is where the public stands, as we go into the convention. Carol, back to you.
[Lin:] We'll see what happens. Thanks so much, Frank.