POLITICS ’88 : CAMPAIGN ’88 : Summit Hiked Reagan Popularity, Poll Shows

Since mid-May, President Reagan’s approval rating, enhanced by the Moscow summit, has increased from 46% to 55%, but the gain has not boosted Vice President George Bush in his quest for the presidency, according to a Gallup poll.

Over the same period, the vice president has gained no significant ground on Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis in a test election matching the likely presidential nominees of the two major parties.

In the current survey, taken Friday through Sunday, Dukakis led Bush by 52% to 38%. The May survey showed Dukakis with a 54% to 38% edge.

Following the Moscow summit, voters have an improved opinion of the state of U.S.-Soviet relations and more positive views toward the Soviet government. Seventy-six percent of voters say they are now satisfied with the state of relations between the two countries.

Last fall, prior to the Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Washington, only 47% of U.S. adults interviewed in a Gallup/Newsweek Poll were satisfied. While Americans tend to respond favorably to Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev--55% express generally favorable opinions of him--30% expressed generally negative opinions of him in the current survey.

The summits clearly have been popular with the voters. More than 80% feel the meetings between the two leaders have improved U.S.-Soviet relations to some extent; 34% feel they have improved relations a lot.

The survey results are based on telephone interviews with 1,005 registered voters nationwide. The margin of error in the sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 4 percentage points.