ABCNEWS.com : Poll: Public Skeptical of Bush on Issues

While the war on terrorism continues to supercharge President Bush's personal and professional ratings, he still faces broad public skepticism on a range of issues — and a growing sense of distance from the public on a more personal level.

On taxes, a centerpiece of Bush's domestic agenda, the president and the public are clearly out of sync. Americans by a huge margin, 62 percent to 34 percent, say it's more important for the government to provide needed services than to cut taxes. But Bush is widely seen as having the opposite priority: By a 57 percent to 32 percent margin, Americans think it's more important to him to cut taxes than to provide needed services.

His approval rating for handling the war on terrorism is a remarkable 79 percent; homeland security, 67 percent; Iraq, a still-respectable 58 percent.

But on many other issues it's much lower — just 51 percent approval on taxes, 50 percent on the economy and the environment alike, 49 percent on Social Security, an especially weak 33 percent on health insurance, and a still-weaker 29 percent approval for his work on prescription drugs.

These results underscore a potential problem for the president even as he continues to command broad support overall: Were assessments of his work on terrorism to falter, or the issue to slide in public priority, there seems to be little there to back him up.

These lower ratings also may explain why the number of Americans who approve "strongly" of Bush's overall job performance is down to 37 percent — its lowest since before Sept. 11, 2001, and down from an extraordinary peak of 76 percent a month after the attacks.

A continued slow slide in the poll numbers.