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Morning News

Gallup Poll: Americans More Concerned about State of U.S. Military Readiness

Aired September 27, 2000 - 11:10 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: With just under six weeks to go to election day, the latest polls show the presidential race remains tight. One issue that has come up during campaign 2000: the state of U.S. military readiness. And we're going to see now how that issue is playing out with voters. He usually joins us from Princeton, New Jersey, but today, Gallup Poll editor-in-chief Frank Newport is with us here, in Atlanta. Thanks for coming and sitting with us.

FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP POLL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: It's a pleasure to be here in the flesh.

PHILLIPS: I finally got to meet you.

NEWPORT: It's my pleasure. I'm excited.

PHILLIPS: Well, what are we going begin with, military readiness?

NEWPORT: That's right, national defense. This week we've been looking at one of the major issues each day. National defense, an important issue, what we might call a sleeper issue. So, let's look at some of the data, and we'll show you what we are seeing.

One question we have is: Is it important that the United States be number one militarily? And we can show you where the public comes in on that: yes. You can see it has gone up some. It's 70 percent when we asked that last. So, underneath it all, we think the public is telling us: We do think that's a very important goal for the country.

There are some differences by men and women on that, which is not surprising. Men usually a little stronger in their support for military things than women. And I think we will show that you men are more likely to say yes than women. There we go. On both age groups, it doesn't matter what your age is. If you look at men versus women, men are more likely. But even women, traditionally more pacifist, I should point out, still that's a very strong goal for them.

Earlier this year, Bush and Cheney raised this issue in the campaign about: We are not number one. We are weak. And so, we asked the public that. And you can see of those left two bars, there, more Americans say that the military is getting worse, and is less prepared than say it's getting better. So, there's some, although, not overwhelming support for that (inaudible) position.

Now, here's the chart that we love. You're going to have to stare at this one carefully because this is -- it goes all the way back to Vietnam. Are we spending too much or too little on the military? Now notice, in 1969, that red line was high. A lot of money, spending too much. Then Reagan came in, it went down. We're spending too little, so let's spend more. Clinton came in in '93, it went up. Well, we're spending too much.

But the key is, right now, it's gone back down. So, the tide has turned. We think the public is now more receptive, like they were when Reagan came in, to spending more money on the military. so, that's where they stand on that issue.

One specific issue is missile defense. It depends on how you ask the question, but I think, Kyra, we can show you here, and this is the last slide, I think. Fifty-three percent say: Yes, they like the idea, controversial idea the Clinton administration has proposed for the missile defense system.

PHILLIPS: Now, well, I have to ask you something with regard to this information, because I get asked this a lot.

How do we know we can trust these polls.

NEWPORT: Just trust us, that's all you need to know.

PHILLIPS: Is that all that we need to say?

NEWPORT: Well, it's an important question. The way I like to answer that is: How do you know you can trust what you read in the newspaper? How do you know you can trust what you see on television? It really does depend on who is doing the polling, how well it is done, whether you trust it or not, just like news. We think at Gallup we do a very good job. There's some things you can look for, but polling can be susceptible to manipulation just like news coverage can. So, I think it is somewhat consumer beware.

PHILLIPS: So, how do you do your polls?

NEWPORT: They're done by telephone. The sampling is complex. People call us up all the time and say: You only interview in New York and California. Isn't that right? You forgot to interview us in Peoria.

PHILLIPS: I get those questions too.

NEWPORT: But it's not true. In fact, we have a complex sampling mechanism, so, everybody in America has an equal chance of falling into our sample. It's a random-digit dial system that's complicated -- even unlisted numbers. But basically, our statisticians assure us we do a pretty good job of representing what we would get if we interviewed everybody in the country.

PHILLIPS: Frank Newport, thanks for joining us here in Atlanta.

NEWPORT: It's a pleasure to be here.

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