{"id":57315,"date":"2002-07-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2002-07-02T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2002\/07\/02\/laura-bushs-changing-image-no-longer-just-nice\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:11:21","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:11:21","slug":"laura-bushs-changing-image-no-longer-just-nice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2002\/07\/02\/laura-bushs-changing-image-no-longer-just-nice\/","title":{"rendered":"Laura Bush\u2019s Changing Image: No Longer Just \u2019Nice\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 id=\"research-findings\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Research Findings<\/h2>\n\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/legacy\/158-1.gif\" alt=\"\"><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Americans like Laura Bush even more than they did a year ago, and her public image is better defined these days. Seven-in-ten (69%) say they approve of the way Mrs. Bush is handling her job, up from 58% last July. A year ago, fully a third of the public (34%) had not formed an opinion of the First Lady&#8217;s job performance; that number has declined to 23%. And Mrs. Bush&#8217;s negative rating \u00ad just 8%, unchanged from last year \u00ad remains much lower than those of other recent first ladies.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The terms people use to describe Mrs Bush reflect changing public perceptions of her. Asked for one-word descriptions of the First Lady, the responses are almost uniformly positive, as they were last year. Once again, &#8220;nice&#8221; leads the list, but terms like &#8220;honest,&#8221; &#8220;confident&#8221; and &#8220;sincere,&#8221; are mentioned much more often than a year ago. Fewer people describe her as &#8220;elegant&#8221; or emphasize her role as a mother (for list, see pg. 4).<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mrs. Bush draws support from across the political spectrum, even when compared with the president, who has relatively strong approval ratings among the opposing party. By more than four-to-one (60%-13%) Democrats approve of her job performance; President Bush&#8217;s ratings among Democrats are positive but more mixed (53%-37%). Republican ratings for the president and First Lady are overwhelmingly positive.<\/p>\n\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/legacy\/158-2.gif\" alt=\"\"><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Age and gender are associated with impressions of the First Lady. Women below the age of 50, in particular, emphasize Laura Bush&#8217;s confidence and intelligence; men in that age group most often cite her honesty or describe her as &#8220;classy.&#8221; Older men view Mrs. Bush as &#8220;nice&#8221; and &#8220;classy,&#8221; while women age 50 and older most frequently describe her as &#8220;ladylike.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is no consensus as to who represents the ideal First Lady despite Mrs. Bush&#8217;s current popularity. Asked to name which recent First Lady comes closest to that idea, 30% mention Sen. Hillary Clinton, while almost as many (26%) cite Barbara Bush, Laura Bush&#8217;s mother-in-law. Roughly one-in-five (19%) name Laura Bush and the same number mention Nancy Reagan. A year ago, when Mrs. Bush was new on the job, just 6% pointed to her as fitting the idea of a First Lady.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Partisanship is a factor here. Among the last four First Ladies (including Laura Bush), Sen. Clinton has the advantage of being the only Democrat. While half of Democrats (51%) name Clinton as coming closest to the idea of what a First Lady should be, Republicans are split between Barbara Bush (35%), Laura Bush (29%) and Nancy Reagan (27%).<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Conservative Republicans are most likely to view Laura Bush as coming closest to the idea of a First Lady: as many conservative Republicans name her (34%) as cite Barbara Bush (33%). However, for moderate and liberal Republicans Barbara Bush (38%) is the top choice. Nearly twice as many of these more centrist Republicans name Barbara Bush as cite Laura Bush (20%).<\/p>\n\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/legacy\/158-3.gif\" alt=\"\"><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sen. Clinton is overwhelmingly popular among liberal Democrats, but just 46% of moderate and conservative Democrats see her as the ideal First Lady. On balance as many of the latter group named one of the Republican First Ladies as chose Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There also is a generation gap when it comes to First Ladies. For those under age 50, Hillary Clinton is seen as coming closest to the ideal First Lady (33%). For those over 50, Barbara Bush is seen as coming closest to that ideal (31%). Laura Bush fares about the same in both groups (17% under 50, 22% 50 and over). But Republicans age 50 and over are slightly more likely to name Mrs. Bush than their younger counterparts (35% vs. 26%).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Research Findings Americans like Laura Bush even more than they did a year ago, and her public image is better defined these days. Seven-in-ten (69%) say they approve of the way Mrs. Bush is handling her job, up from 58% last July. A year ago, fully a third of the public (34%) had not formed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":"No One Dislikes Her!","sub_title":"No One Dislikes Her!","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[{"key":"_migrate_0","postId":57322}],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"bylines":[],"collection":[],"datasets":[1639],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[],"research-teams":[520],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-57315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leaders","datasets-june-2002-news-interest-index","formats-report","research-teams-politics"],"label":false,"post_parent":0,"word_count":581,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2002\/07\/02\/laura-bushs-changing-image-no-longer-just-nice\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[{"id":57315,"title":"Laura Bush\u2019s Changing Image: No Longer Just \u2019Nice\u2019","slug":"laura-bushs-changing-image-no-longer-just-nice","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2002\/07\/02\/laura-bushs-changing-image-no-longer-just-nice\/","is_active":true},{"id":57322,"title":"About this Survey","slug":"about-this-survey-96","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2002\/07\/02\/about-this-survey-96\/","is_active":false}],"report_materials":"","report_pagination":{"current_post":{"id":57315,"title":"Laura Bush\u2019s Changing Image: No Longer Just \u2019Nice\u2019","slug":"laura-bushs-changing-image-no-longer-just-nice","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2002\/07\/02\/laura-bushs-changing-image-no-longer-just-nice\/","is_active":true,"page_num":1},"next_post":{"id":57322,"title":"About this Survey","slug":"about-this-survey-96","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2002\/07\/02\/about-this-survey-96\/","is_active":false,"page_num":2},"previous_post":null,"pagination_items":[{"id":57315,"title":"Laura Bush\u2019s Changing Image: No Longer Just \u2019Nice\u2019","slug":"laura-bushs-changing-image-no-longer-just-nice","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2002\/07\/02\/laura-bushs-changing-image-no-longer-just-nice\/","is_active":true,"page_num":1},{"id":57322,"title":"About this Survey","slug":"about-this-survey-96","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2002\/07\/02\/about-this-survey-96\/","is_active":false,"page_num":2}]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"Laura Bush\u2019s Changing Image: No Longer Just \u2019Nice\u2019","parent_id":57315},"materialsOrdered":[],"chaptersOrdered":[{"key":"_migrate_0","postId":57322}],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Laura Bush\u2019s Changing Image: No Longer Just \u2019Nice\u2019","description":"Research Findings Americans like Laura Bush even more than they did a year ago, and her public image is better defined these days. 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