Politics on the Hudson

Things are slowing down on the political beat as the holidays approach, but perhaps not for Condoleezza Rice, who American voters named the most powerful woman in the United States in new Quinnipiac poll results.

Rice was picked by 45 percent of voters overall, followed by U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, at 29 percent, and incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, at 23 percent. Among just Democrats, Clinton edged Rice, 34 percent to 33 percent.

Some 56 percent of voters think Clinton is qualified to be president, compared to 50 percent for Rice. Less than half the people polled said Pelosi had enough credentials.

President George W. Bush getes a 58 percent disapproval rating, matching his all-time low point in Quinnipiac polling, in June. But only 30 percent of poll subjects said the U.S. should remove all of its troops from Iraq; another 23 percent favor a gradual draw-down, 23 percent say the troop level should be increased and 16 percent favor keeping the current number of troops. Asked an open-ended question about the most important problem facing the country, 31 percent named the war in Iraq; runners up, at 8 percent each, were the economy and terrorism.

More than half those surveyed think the president and Congressional Democrats will not be able to work successfully together to solve problems.

The poll also took the pulse of the country on same sex marriage; 52 percent nationwide oppose civil union laws and 63 percent oppose laws allowing same-sex couples to marry. But 53 percent are against amending the Constitution to prevent same-sex marriage.

The survey has a margin of error of +/- 2.4 percentage points.