Salacious tabloid press may have taken a toll on Al Gore’s favor with the public, a new poll shows. At the same time, no longer being in the White House seems to have raised Dick Cheney’s standing, if only from really bad to plain old bad.
A Gallup poll released today finds that Americans have a markedly less favorable view of Gore than they had three years ago. In the wake of Gore’s divorce announcement and allegations that he sexually assaulted a masseuse in 2006, 49% of Americans have an unfavorable view of Gore, compared with 44% who have a favorable view.
Gallup last asked Americans about their opinion of Gore in 2007, after he had won the Nobel Peace Prize for his crusade against global warming. Then, 58% of Americans viewed Gore favorably, while 37% viewed him unfavorably. During his two terms as Bill Clinton’s vice president, Gore’s favorable ratings hovered mostly above 50%.
In the same Gallup poll, Americans seemed to warm a bit to their last vice president, Dick Cheney. Cheney’s favorable ratings rose from 30% in March 2009 to 36% now. Over the same period, the percentage of Americans with an unfavorable view of Cheney fell from 63% to 52%.
In the poll, the current vice president seemed to be doing the best of the bunch. Forty-three percent of Americans view Joe Biden favorably, while 41% view him unfavorably. Those numbers haven’t changed much since the fall of 2009, when Biden had a 42% favorable rating and a 40% unfavorable rating.
The Gallup poll, which surveyed 1,020 adults, was conducted July 8-11. It has a margin of error of ±4.0.
