WASHINGTON (AFP) - Six weeks before the US presidential election, George W. Bush was clinging to a lead with Democrat John Kerry still stained by attacks on his leadership and struggling to connect with voters, polls show.
The latest survey released Saturday by the New York Times and CBS News gave the president a 50-42 percent edge over Kerry among registered voters, and a Zogby poll put the gap at 46-43 percent.
A Gallup poll Friday reported a 13-point advantage for Bush among likely voters. Others studies last week put his lead as two to 12 points although two groups, the Pew Research Center and Harris Interactive, had the race tied.
The incumbent's lead flies in the face of general voter discontent. The Times/CBS poll showed Bush's approval rating hovering around 50 percent, with a majority of voters still feeling the country was on the "wrong track."
But behind these key barometers lurked a thicket of worrying data for Kerry that has been accumulating since the Republican national convention in New York wound up on September 2.
The Republicans' success on focusing the debate on national security after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and assailing Kerry's fitness for command has clearly taken a toll on the Democrat.
The Times/CBS survey showed the percentage of voters with an unfavorable view of the Massachusetts senator and decorated Vietnam war veteran rising eight points in a month to 42 percent.
Faith in his leadership dropped 10 points to 50 percent and only 32 percent trusted the Democrat to handle an international crisis wisely, compared to 51 percent who had confidence in Bush.
The Pew poll, while more charitable to Kerry, reflected much of the same shift. Bush had a 12-point edge over his challenger on Iraq and was preferred by nearly a two-to-one margin in dealing with terrorism.
With Kerry hurting from attacks on his war record by pro-Republican veterans, Bush had hefty leads virtually across the board on personal characteristics such as leadership, judgment, honesty and steadfastness.
A poll published by the Annenberg Election Survey found Bush favored as commander in chief by 52 to 39 percent, nearly double the edge he held before the Republican convention and its non-stop run of attacks on Kerry.
Perhaps more fundamental in political terms were findings that suggest Kerry's support was significantly softer than Bush's as they headed into the final stretch of their marathon campaign for the November 2 election.
Just 40 percent of his supporters interviewed in the Times/CBS poll said they strongly favor Kerry, down from 45 percent a week earlier. The percentage of Bush supporters who said they strongly backed him stayed steady at 63 percent.
The Pew poll found that six in 10 Kerry partisans considered their position more anti-Bush than pro-Kerry, while 78 percent of the president's supporters said they were more for Bush than against his opponent.
The math of the idiosyncratic US system, where the outcome is determined by electoral votes apportioned among the states and earned in separate, mostly winner-take-all contests, was also troublesome for Kerry.
Bush, who beat Al Gore for the presidency in 2000 by 271 to 266 electoral votes, was ahead in "must-win" states for him such as Ohio and Missouri and was challenging Kerry in previously Democratic states such as Wisconsin, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.
But all is not lost for Kerry. The Times polls showed 80 percent of respondents felt Bush was either "hiding something" or "mostly lying" on Iraq, giving the Democrat fertile ground for his new round of attacks on the war.
The Pew survey found the number of swing voters had actually increased from 21 to 25 percent since June. Studies show younger voters are particularly volatile and a Harvard University survey last week said they were largely keyed on Iraq.
Polls also suggested the televised presidential debates due to start on September 30 could be crucial. Pew said 61 percent of those interviewed planned to tune in, up from 43 percent who said they would watch in the two previous elections.