A new Monitor poll shows that President Bush has lost support among New Hampshire voters, and more Granite State residents than before believe the president misled the country about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and then mishandled the war itself.

For the first time in a Monitor poll, a majority of surveyed voters (56 percent) gave Bush low marks on performance, rating him as either fair or poor. Thirty-nine percent of respondents said he was doing a good or excellent job. That's a drop from a similar Monitor poll taken in July, when 44 percent rated Bush as good or excellent.

Support for the war in Iraq has also receded. Fewer voters in the new poll approved of the job the president has done in handling the occupation (37 percent said good or excellent) than in either the July poll (43 percent) or one taken last February, when 49 percent of New Hampshire voters rated the post-war occupation as good or excellent. In February, 10 percent of voters thought the occupation had been handled poorly, and 7 percent weren't sure. That's shifted. In July, 9 percent of the voters thought it had been handled poorly, and 3 percent were undecided. Now, 15 percent call it poor, and 2 percent are undecided.

The Monitor polls were conducted by Research 2000, a Maryland-based nonpartisan polling firm. Between Nov. 20 and 22, Research 2000 interviewed 600 likely New Hampshire voters representing a cross-section of the state, speaking with 224 independents (37 percent), 196 Republicans (33 percent) and 180 Democrats (30 percent) about local and national issues. Check tomorrow's Monitor for voters'views on Gov. Lynch, New Hampshire's congressional delegation and abortion and gay marriage.

A majority of voters thought the war in Iraq was not worth fighting (59 percent) and felt misled about whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (53 percent). And an overwhelming majority of voters from all parties wanted to see an end to U.S. military involvement in Iraq, with less than 20 percent of Republicans calling for an open-ended commitment to finishing the job. A majority of both Democrats and independents wanted out in a year or less, while a majority of Republicans wanted to be out of Iraq within two years.

The numbers are similar to those Bush is receiving in other states, said Del Ali, president of Research 2000, which regularly conducts polls for a wide range of clients.

"The biggest and most dramatic jump is a majority of people now think the administration misled the American people about the whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction," said Ali, a pollster and political analyst. "That is the crux of any issue people are focusing on, and that's why the White House right now, I think, is in total damage control."

Bush's sinking approval ratings are tied to people's feelings about the war, Ali said. And the president has suffered sharp drops among independents. The 37 percent of New Hampshire voters who think Bush has handled Iraq in good or excellent fashion represent the "total allegiance to the president"set at the core of the party, Ali said.

Kathy Sullivan, chairwoman for the state Democratic Party, agreed. "There are people who are going to think that if you criticize George Bush and you criticize the job he did in Iraq that you are somehow not supporting the troops, which is not the case," Sullivan said.

That party base will give the president and the war high marks no matter what, she said. "But what's really evident here is among independents, the numbers have swung," Sullivan said.

Warren Henderson, chairman of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee, said he thought the poll numbers were flawed as a result of biased questions.

"These are the questions I'd expect Cindy Sheehan to ask, frankly," said Henderson, referring to the mother who has publicly pressured Bush to bring the troops home since her son was killed in Iraq. Calling the post-war effort in Iraq an "occupation" is an insult to the American soldiers, Henderson said.

"I would hope that the Concord Monitor wouldn't even ask a question that would characterize the American army as an army of occupation," Henderson said. "The Nazi army was an army of occupation. The American army is an army of liberation. I have not seriously heard that point argued before."

Henderson said New Hampshire voters and the American people at large have been misled by a media bent on reporting only the negative news from Iraq, not the progress being made. The United States must be vigilant about rooting out and attacking sources of terror around the world to prevent them from striking at home, he said. Calling for a pullout of the troops linked to a date, not an accomplishment, would be a mistake, Henderson said.

Anyone who wants a fast pullout "just doesn't get it - just doesn't understand the ramifications of performing a leadership role in the world in which we live," the Republican chairman said. "My belief is that America has special responsibilities to defend freedom."

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