PREDISPOSITIONS AND PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR THE PRESIDENT DURING THE WAR ON TERRORISM

termath offer a rare opportunity to examine how presidential approval responds to a sudden and severe national security crisis. I utilize the 2000–2002 National Election Studies panel to track change in public attitudes toward George W. Bush over the first two years of his presi-dency. An advantage of using panel data is that it allows me to go beyond aggregate change in presidential approval to examine how change is re-lated to defense policy predispositions and prior political awareness. I find important differences. Over these two years, those high in political awareness experience priming of their defense predispositions but very little rally effect. In contrast, those low in political awareness experience a rally in support for Bush but very little priming. These results reaffirm that those with different levels of political awareness respond to dramatic messages in distinct ways