NEW YORK – A FOX News poll finds that Americans think President George W. Bush will land on Santa’s "naughty" list this year, a reversal from the two previous years when pluralities put the president on the "nice" list. As has been the case in the past, most think they personally will be on Santa’s good list. When it comes to rewards for their good behavior, nearly half say they would rather receive cold hard cash than an actual gift or a gift certificate.
The new poll finds that almost half of Americans say Santa Claus will rate President Bush as "naughty" this year. At 47 percent, the number thinking Bush will get a negative rating is up from 40 percent who thought so last year and 31 percent in 2003.
On the other side, 38 percent think Santa will give the president a "nice" rating, down 5 percentage points from last year (43 percent) and 8 percentage points from 2003 (46 percent).
The results show highly partisan biases: 76 percent of Democrats think Bush will get a "naughty" rating, while 71 percent of Republicans say "nice."
Even though the number of Republicans who think Bush has been "naughty" is relatively low this year — 16 percent — that is twice as many as said so two years ago (8 percent in 2003).
The portion of Democrats that put the president on the "naughty" list has increased 21 percentage points since two years ago (55 percent in 2003).
And looking in the mirror, what do people think? Similar to past years, there is widespread belief that Santa Claus will think they have been good this year. Some 74 percent think Santa will put them on the "nice" list, down from 80 percent last year, and closer to the 73 percent who thought so in 2003.
About one in seven (14 percent) say this year they will get the thumbs down from Santa.
Stressing Out During the Holidays
Many Americans will be hitting the road this holiday season, including 32 percent that say they will be traveling more than 100 miles. Even so, it isn’t the holiday travel delays and traffic jams that people say causes them the most stress this time of year, but a different kind of pressure: Choosing the right presents to give.
A 31 percent plurality says finding the right gifts is the thing that causes them the most stress during the holidays, followed by the stress-inducing activities of spending time with family members (12 percent) and putting up the holiday decorations (12 percent). One in 10 puts travel at the top of their holiday stress list.
Instead of stressing out about picking the right gift, greenbacks look like a good alternative as close to half of Americans (45 percent) say they would rather receive cash than a gift (30 percent) or a gift certificate (18 percent).
Opinion Dynamics Corporation conducted the national telephone poll of 900 registered voters for FOX News on December 13-14, 2005.
• PDF: Click here for poll results.
Complete poll results are available here.
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