This was already hashed out, largely in response to my post a few days back. The conclusion was that the poll was from 2001, that in fact
I was wrong in my initial post. I excitedly thought the poll was from this year (August 1st, 2003). I got carried away by the 36%, too. (someone else repeated my mistake a day or so later; and again now)
If you look at the Pollingreport.com site (
http://www.pollingreport.com/wh04gen.htm, which is where this comes from), note that at the top it says "Polls listed chronologically". That's going backwards in time, with the most recent polls first. This is the way pollingreport always posts their poll data. Looking at any of their polls verifies this.
Also, the Fox poll of concern says at the top it is from July 29-30, 2003. That's the 7/03. The number below is August 2002 (8/01), the last time the Bush vs. unnamed Dem poll was conducted by Fox.
Also note that on pollingreport's web page, whenever only two numbers are listed (as in 7/03, or 8/01), it is month/year, NOT month/day. It would make no sense to put just month/day when comparing numbers going back the last 2-3 years, as they do. Whenever an actual date is included, all three numbers are listed (8/5-8/03, 5/1-2/03, etc.) Looking at polls where all three numbers are listed also allows you to clearly see the backwards chronological nature by which pollingreport posts the data.
Lastly, look at a poll where data is listed both by month/year and by month/date/year, and you can clearly see that when two numbers are used, it is referring to month/year, NOT month/day.
Newsweek Poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates. July 24-25, 2003. (I've put the dates only below)
7/24-25/03
7/10-11/03
5/1-2/03
4/10-11/03
11/02Sorry to burst your bubble, but the poll is from August 2001.