CAMPAIGN ’88 : 3 Polls Favor Bush

Three new opinion polls have found narrow leads for Bush in the presidential race, although voters preferred the Democratic vice presidential nominee to Bush’s own running mate, Sen. Dan Quayle.

Given the accepted statistical margin of error in the latest polls, the race between Republican presidential nominee Bush and Democratic nominee Michael S. Dukakis could be a dead heat. The race was 44% to 39% in an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll, 49% to 47% in a Harris survey and 48% to 46% in an ABC News-Washington Post poll.

The polls showed increases in Bush’s popularity after the Republican National Convention in New Orleans last week. However, some pollsters have suggested that Bush’s postconvention rebound was cut short by controversy over the selection of Quayle.

Bush Gain ‘Badly Eroded’

Pollster Louis Harris said he believed the issue had “blunted and badly eroded” Bush’s gains. But Jeff Alderman, pollster for ABC News, said he had not seen statistical evidence that Quayle had damaged Bush’s standing. And 64% in the NBC-Journal poll said Quayle’s questioned military record should not be an issue in the campaign.

In the Harris poll, Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, Dukakis’ running mate, outpolled Quayle by 57% to 40% when voters were asked their preference for vice president alone. Fifty-two percent rated Bush’s choice of Quayle as “only fair” or “poor,” compared with 44% who said “excellent” or “pretty good.”

Quayle fared better by another measure, used in the NBC-Journal poll: Forty-three percent approved of him as the GOP vice presidential nominee, but 27% disapproved and 30% said they were not sure.