On the eve of President Bush's Middle East trip, the American public did not give him positive marks on his handling of several issues relating to problems in the region. A Harris poll taken last week showed that 62 percent of Americans feel he was not handling the Israeli/Palestinian conflict properly, while only 25 percent give him positive marks. As far as his efforts in the war on terror, only about a third – 32 percent said he was handling the issue properly, while 61 percent said he was not.

Bush did better among Republicans than Democrats in the poll, as was to be expected – but not among Conservative Republicans. Only 46 percent of this group said he was properly addressing the Mideast conflict.