Bush, Gephardt Lose Some Momentum In Iowa Campaigns, NBC Poll Shows
WASHINGTON -- Two presidential candidates whose political prospects seemed bright earlier this year, Vice President George Bush and Rep. Richard Gephardt, have fallen off the pace in Iowa, the site of the first test of the 1988 campaign.</br></br>A new NBC News poll shows that Senate Republican leader Robert Dole has opened a 16-percentage-point lead, 42% to 26%, over Mr. Bush among likely participants in the Feb. 8 caucuses. The poll also shows Mr. Gephardt with the support of only 10% of likely Democratic participants, trailing Illinois Sen. Paul Simon, at 21%, and Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, at 20%.</br></br>A separate NBC survey of likely voters in New Hampshire's Feb. 16 primary provides some solace for Mr. Bush: It shows him with a 20-point lead, 41% to 21%, over Sen. Dole. But the New Hampshire poll provides no such encouragement for Mr. Gephardt, who had ridden concerns about America's foreign-trade deficit into the first tier of Democratic candidates. The survey shows that Gov. Dukakis has the support of half of New Hampshire's Democrats, with Sen. Simon second at 13% and the rest of the field with little support. Mr. Gephardt scores just 3%.</br></br>The polls, conducted from Nov. 15 to 21 among 1,705 likely voters in Iowa and 1,987 in New Hampshire, show all the Republicans but Mr. Bush and Sen. Dole and all the Democrats but Gov. Dukakis and Sen. Simon far behind.</br></br>The polls indicate that the two Republican front-runners are well known and well regarded in both states. Mr. Dole, who formally announced his candidacy a week before the polls began, gets especially high ratings from the Iowa Republicans; eight in 10 have a favorable opinion of the Kansan, while seven in 10 have a favorable impression of Mr. Bush. In New Hampshire, three of four regard the vice president favorably, while two-thirds feel the same about the Senate leader.