BUSH’S LEAD against the five leading Democratic contenders - Howard Dean, Wesley Clark, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, and Richard Gephardt - has shrunk to a low of 4 points, vs. 6 points a month ago. Dean continues to poll best against Bush, with 45 percent of respondents saying they would vote for him, compared to 49 percent for Bush. Last month, 43 percent would have voted for Dean and 49 percent Bush. In a race against Clark, Bush would win 48 percent of the vote vs. 45 percent for Clark. Last month, those numbers were 49 percent and 43 percent.

...The narrowing of Bush’s lead may be due to an increasing pessimism about U.S. efforts in Iraq. In the NEWSWEEK poll, 53 percent said they don’t believe the administration has a well thought out plan for post-war Iraq; that represents a 5 percent increase since October. Sixty percent feel the United States is investing too much money in operations in Iraq, a statistic that has remained constant since September. The number of respondents who feel going to war with Iraq was the right decision has also slipped considerably in the past few months, from more than two-thirds in July to just 55 percent this week.

--Newsweek

This despite the fact that approval of Bush's economic policies went up in response to the positive economic news last week (though more people still disapprove of Bush on the economy than approve).