A Newsweek poll shows that nearly half (49 percent) of Americans feel President Bush took advantage of the system for personal financial gain when he made his Harken Energy stock transactions.

A slim majority of respondents (52 percent) believe he acted within the rules at that time.

The poll found that Americans are evenly divided on whether Bush is intentionally covering up information about his stock transactions that could be damaging to his reputation.

Respondents to the poll also were split on whether Bush knowingly is covering up information to protect his reputation: 42 percent say he is, the same percentage say he is not, and 16 percent don’t know.

The poll was released Saturday on the magazine’s Web site.