September 11, 2006

Abstract: - Adults in the United States are split on how a different president would have dealt with the 9/11 attacks, according to a poll by Opinion Dynamics released by Fox News. 34 per cent of respondents think it would have been better for the country if Democrat Al Gore had been president, while 33 per cent think it would have been worse.

- Adults in the United States are split on how a different president would have dealt with the 9/11 attacks, according to a poll by Opinion Dynamics released by Fox News. 34 per cent of respondents think it would have been better for the country if Democrat Al Gore had been president, while 33 per cent think it would have been worse.

In the 2000 U.S. presidential election, weeks of recounts and court injunctions concluded in a 537-vote victory for Republican George W. Bush over Gore in the Sunshine State. Gore received 540,000 more votes than Bush in the entire country, but the Republican garnered 271 votes in the Electoral College. Bush took office in January 2001.

Al-Qaeda operatives hijacked and crashed four airplanes in the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, killing nearly 3,000 people. In October, after Afghanistan's Taliban regime refused to hand over al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the U.S. launched the war on terrorism.

In February 2004, Gore criticized the Bush administration's decision to launch the coalition effort in Iraq, saying, "He betrayed this country. He played on our fears. He took America on an ill-conceived foreign adventure dangerous to our troops, an adventure preordained and planned before 9/11 ever took place."

On Sept. 7, Bush declared, "The war on terror is more than a military conflict—it is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century. And we're only in its opening stages." 65 per cent of respondents believe it is exaggerated to refer to 9/11 as the beginning of World War III.

Polling Data

President George W. Bush took office just months before the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. Do you think it would have been better or worse for the country if his challenger Al Gore had been president when the terrorist attacks happened?

Better	34%
Worse	33%
The same	21%
Not sure	12%

Do you think the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States symbolize the beginning of World War III or is that an exaggeration?

Yes, start of WWIII	26%
No, an exaggeration	65%
Don't know	9%

Source: Opinion Dynamics / Fox News
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 900 registered American voters, conducted on Aug. 29 and Aug. 30, 2006. Margin of error is 3 per cent.