'Fahrenheit 911': Most Democrats and Independents Give Michael Moore's Movie Good Marks

By James Wray Jul 23, 2004, 23:10 GMT

President Bush must be wishing Michael Moore would just go away

Many more Democrats (17%) than Republicans (7%) have seen the movie. And many more Democrats (30%) than Republicans (10%) think it very likely that they will see it. When they see it their reactions are very different. Democrats overwhelmingly (89%) give it positive ratings; most Republicans (56%) give it negative ratings. Almost all Democrats (85%) think it treats President Bush fairly; most Republicans (58%) think it treats him unfairly.

The political impact?

In terms of its possible impact on November's election, the most interesting results are the replies given by independents. In most recent presidential elections, the candidate who received the most independent votes won.

The bad news for the White House in this survey is that independent voters are behaving more like Democrats than Republicans. They are as likely as Democrats to have seen "Fahrenheit 911" (18% compared to 17%) and are much likely than Republicans to expect to see it (20% compared to 10%). And when independent voters see the movie they mostly give it good marks (70% positive) and think it is fair (56%).

Also bad news for the president is that significant minorities of Republican viewers of the movie give it positive ratings (44%) and think it treats the president fairly (30%). The best news for the White House may be that, notwithstanding its box office success, most voters (and almost all Republicans) will not see the film.

The Harris Poll(R) was conducted online within the United States between July 12 and 16, 2004 among a nationwide cross section of 2,242 adults (aged 18 and over).

Figures for age, sex, race, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. "Propensity score" weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.