WASHINGTON President Bill Clinton's job approval rating dropped after he admitted to lying about an inappropriate relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and his personal approval ratings plummeted, a new poll said on Tuesday. The poll said that 56 percent of people approve of the job Clinton is doing, down from the mid-sixties before his televised admission of the affair on August 17.

Clinton's personal approval ratings stood at 26 percent, a 19 percent drop since before the scandal erupted in January. Sixty-two percent of the 1,000 people surveyed disapprove of Clinton personally, the poll said. Pollsters did not ask specifically about the Lewinsky scandal. The poll was part of battleground program, a collaboration between a Republican strategist from the Tarrance Group and Democratic pollsters from Lake Snell Parry and Associates. Both sides offered analysis of the latest numbers.

The survey shows that Democrats will be hurt in the upcoming congressional elections, said Ed Goeas, who interpreted the data from the Republican side. The Republican base will continue to be more energized, especially in key swing districts, Goeas wrote in the Republican paper. That being the case, the impact of the Clinton scandal will ultimately be felt at the other end of Pennsylvania avenue on election day.

The Democrats can avoid this result by focusing on the issues during the fall campaign season, said the Democratic team of analysts. The prescription is clear move the debate away from values and Clinton and give Democratic voters an agenda behind which they can rally. (Reuters)