President George W. Bush is viewed as a strong leader with emphasis on national security while John Kerry is seen as a candidate for the creation of more jobs, according to a recent Associated Press Poll.

A recent poll has shown that President Bush is narrowly leading Senator John Kerry in this year's upcoming election.

The poll, conducted for the Associated Press by Ipsos-Public Affairs from March 19-21, focused on voter's views of which candidate they thought was more capable concerning national security and job issues.

According to the 784 registered voters that were polled, 46 percent of voters backed Bush, 43 percent backed Kerry, and independent party candidate Ralph Nader received five percent of the support. Jobs are the most important issue in this year's election; national security is emphasized approximately 15 percentage points lower. When asked in the poll, "Who do you think will be better at creating jobs?" 53 percent chose Kerry while 37 percent voted for Bush.

Almost in exact reciprocation, when asked, "Who do you trust to do a better job of protecting the U.S.?" 58 percent backed Bush while 35 percent opted to pick Kerry. However, the election race is not completely solidified yet. Less than 30 percent of voters feel that they are a strong supporter of either candidate.

Mary Pollack, a 68-year-old Republican from Queens, NY, is waiting for later in the election process to make her decision.

"I'm not really sure who I'm going to vote for yet," she said. "I'm going to wait until they give a little more information about their proposal's. They have focused so much on each other's negative aspects that it's hard to decide."

Decreased popularity has been one common theme experienced by both candidates. Bush has faced weeks of negative campaign advertisements by not only democrats, but also other independent parties. The Republicans are not without their own retaliation, however, spending more than $17 million of their record $143.6 million budget on campaign advertisements geared towards negative aspects of opposing parties.

While the Bush administration seems ready to begin spending the record amount of money that it has accumulated, Democrats have shown that they are not without their own sources of expenditure. The Democratic Party, so far, has spent $37 million on television advertisements. Of that $37 million, $17 million of it was spent solely on ads that attacked Bush and his policies.

Henry Missenheim, a military veteran and devoted Republican from Oradell, NJ, is more concerned with security rather than budgets and jobs.

"I'm not looking for another 9/11 attack," he said. "I think Bush is more capable of helping us gain our national security back, and that's the most important issue as far as I'm concerned."

Not all voters are as passionate about national security as Missenheim, and many feel that the creation of jobs is more important.

Sue Bedford, a resident of Middletown, NY and mother of two children, believes that Kerry is the better candidate due to the emphasis that he places on job creation.

"My sons are my main concern in this year's election," she said. "Kerry looks like the better candidate for me because he's willing to work for more jobs. My family needs financial stability and, if Kerry is ready to work towards that, then I support him."

Other issues, such as honesty, are not as one sided as security and jobs and most voters view both candidates as equally matched in this department. However, Bush does hold a big lead over Kerry concerning leadership strength - 60 percent to 32 percent.