An Exclusive CNBC Poll Finds That More Than Half of Americans Feel That the Bush Administration is Doing a Poor to Fair Job Handling the Economy.

Business Editors

FORT LEE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 31, 2002

CNBC today released the results of an exclusive poll in which 1,000 American adults shared their opinions regarding economic and political issues. The questions and results are as follows:

1.  Overall, how would you rate the Bush Administration's handling of
    the economy? Would you say:

EXCELLENT.................................. 6%
VERY GOOD..................................14%
GOOD.......................................26%
FAIR.......................................28%
POOR.......................................23%
DON'T KNOW................................. 3%

    -   Combining "poor" and "fair" responses, 51 percent of Americans
        indicated that the Bush Administration is doing a poor to fair
        job handling the economy.


2.  Would you say you agree strongly, agree somewhat, disagree
    somewhat or disagree strongly that there will be a biological or
    chemical weapons terrorist attack against the United States in the
    next 12 months?

AGREE STRONGLY.............................19%
AGREE SOMEWHAT.............................28%
DISAGREE SOMEWHAT..........................26%
DISAGREE STRONGLY..........................17%
DON'T KNOW.................................10%

    -   Combining "agree strongly" and "agree somewhat," nearly half
        of Americans, 47 percent, feel that there will be a
        biological/chemical weapons attack in the US in the next year.


3.  Please tell me which of the two issues you feel the Bush
    Administration and Congress should currently be more focused on?

THE WAR WITH IRAQ..........................37%
THE ECONOMY................................57%
DON'T KNOW..................................6%


4.  Do you feel the upcoming election will have an affect on your
    personal financial well-being over the next 12 months?

YES........................................49%
NO.........................................45%
DON'T KNOW..................................7%

5.  Thinking about the next six months, do you think the U.S. economy
    will:

IMPROVE....................................28%
GET WORSE..................................22%
STAY ABOUT THE SAME........................46%
DON'T KNOW................................. 5%


6.  Would you say you agree strongly, agree somewhat, disagree
    somewhat or disagree strongly that increased government regulation
    of corporations will protect workers and investors from future
    scandals and corruption?

AGREE STRONGLY.............................28%
AGREE SOMEWHAT.............................34%
DISAGREE SOMEWHAT..........................17%
DISAGREE STRONGLY..........................15%
DON'T KNOW................................. 6%

CNBC conducted this poll with PKS Research Partners. For this poll, 1,001 adults, aged 18 and older, were interviewed by telephone on Oct. 30, 2002. The margin of error of this poll is plus or minus three percentage points.

CNBC is the recognized global leader in business news, providing real-time financial market coverage and business information to more than 175 million homes worldwide, including more than 86 million households in the United States and Canada. The network's Business Day programming (weekdays from 5:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m. ET) is produced at CNBC's headquarters in Fort Lee, N.J., and also includes reports from CNBC news bureaus worldwide. Additionally, CNBC viewers can manage their individual investment portfolios and gain additional in-depth information from on-air reports by accessing www.cnbc.com. CNBC Europe and CNBC Asia Pacific are services of NBC and Dow Jones & Company. Members of the media can receive more information about CNBC and its programming on the NBC Media Village Web site at www.nbcmv.com/cnbc.

PKS Research Partners is a full service marketing research organization, offering a broad range of capabilities including custom research, consumer, business-to-business, global, omnibus and rapid response market analysis. Research is conducted in the television, financial services, advertising, public relations, travel and tourism and consumer products industries, among others. PKS Research Partners can reach target markets utilizing both state of the art and traditional methodologies such as phone, online, mall intercepts and IVR. More information about PKS Research Partners can be found at www.PKSresearch.com.