GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans seem to agree with Dick Cheney's boss that the vice president need not reduce his workload as a result of recent bouts with coronary heart disease. Even fewer agree with the handful of political observers who have publicly called for the vice president's resignation.
Last November, after Cheney suffered his fourth heart attack, only 30% of Americans expressed concern that his health problems would prevent him from serving effectively as vice president should the Bush-Cheney ticket win. Now, after a new heart scare for Cheney requiring an emergency medical procedure, only slightly more -- 39% -- say they are concerned while 59% are not, according to the March 9-11 CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll.
More to the point, only 11% of Americans think Cheney should resign and just 21% think he should cut back on his vice presidential duties. Most Americans (66%) think Cheney should continue his current duties with little or no change.
Parallels With Eisenhower
A half-century ago, Americans expressed somewhat more concern about
the health problems experienced by President Dwight Eisenhower.
Following a heart attack in 1955 and a 1956 colon operation,
Eisenhower appeared vulnerable. In June 1956, only 43% of Americans
believed his health would permit him to perform his duties as
president in a second term, while 38% disagreed. However, as the
1956 election drew closer, confidence in Eisenhower's ability to
perform grew to 56% -- and he went on to win re-election that
November in a landslide.
Perhaps Americans are taking the news of Cheney's health in relative stride today because he is only second in command, or because he seemed to recover so quickly from each heart episode (unlike Eisenhower, who spent seven weeks in the hospital after his heart attack), or because medical treatment of heart disease has improved so greatly. Although heart disease kills more Americans than any other cause, according to the American Heart Association, many more people now survive heart attacks than die from them.
President George W. Bush, who is on record stating Cheney need not curtail his work, will have a perfect opportunity to confirm that judgement on Wednesday morning; he is scheduled to address the 50th Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology in Orlando.
Survey Methods
The results below are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,015 adults, 18 years and older, conducted March 9-11, 2001. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
On another matter, are you concerned or not concerned that Vice President Dick Cheney's health problems will prevent him from serving effectively as vice president?
|
Concerned |
Not concerned |
No opinion |
||
|
2001 Mar 9-11 |
39% |
59 |
2 |
|
|
2000 Nov 26-27 ^ |
30% |
68 |
2 |
|
|
^ |
WORDING: On another matter, are you concerned or not concerned that Republican vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney's health problems would prevent him from serving effectively as vice president? |
|||
Which comes closest to your view concerning Vice President Dick Cheney's health problems -- [ROTATED: Cheney should resign as vice president, Cheney should remain as vice president, but cut back on his duties, (or) Cheney should remain as vice president and continue with his current duties with little or no change]?
|
|
Cut back |
Continue with current duties |
No |
|
|
2001 Mar 9-11 |
11% |
21 |
66 |
2 |
