Predispositions and Public Support for the President During the War on Terrorism

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and their aftermathoffer a rare opportunity to examine how presidential approvalresponds to a sudden and severe national security crisis. Iutilize the 2000–2002 National Election Studies panelto track change in public attitudes toward George W. Bush overthe first two years of his presidency. An advantage of usingpanel data is that it allows me to go beyond aggregate changein presidential approval to examine how change is related todefense policy predispositions and prior political awareness.I find important differences. Over these two years, those highin political awareness experience priming of their defense predispositionsbut very little rally effect. In contrast, those low in politicalawareness experience a rally in support for Bush but very littlepriming. These results reaffirm that those with different levelsof political awareness respond to dramatic messages in distinctways.