I bet House Majority Whip James Clyburn and other defeatist Democrats like him were none too pleased to read the latest poll numbers on the surge, courtesy of USA Today:
USA TODAY’s Susan Page reports that President Bush is making some headway in arguing that the increase in U.S. troops in Iraq is showing military progress.
In the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, taken Friday through Sunday, the proportion of those who said the additional troops are “making the situation better” rose to 31% from 22% a month ago. Those who said it was “not making much difference” dropped to 41% from 51%.
I’m the last one who would advocate that we govern based on polls, but Democrats base almost everything they do on what the polls say. Captain Ed wonders, as do I, if this will be a wake up call for them to start supporting the surge, rather than continue to push for an early withdrawal? Wonder if we’ll see a few of those hardcore anti-war types in Congress start expressing very lukewarm support for the surge in the coming days ….
Nah, scratch that.
To top off this “bad news for Democrats” segment, the Associated Press’ military writer David Burns has an analysis that shows that our troops are making gains in Iraq.
Something tells me there will be a lot of Democrats partaking in some of the heavier stuff tonight at a few Capitol Hill bars. Sniffle.
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Would you say that going from 22% to 31% that support is suring?
Comment by skeptical @ 8/6/2007 - 8:56 pm
The democrats misread the polls again.
As we have said before, it isn’t that all of the people who are disillusioned with the war want the troops to retreat, they want victory, to win. They want to see positive progress in Iraq.
That is the ‘new direction’ most people want in this war.
Personally I believe the media is culpable in these bad poll numbers regardless, because if they actually showed the postive with the negative, people could see there is progress being made….but instead all they show is doom and gloom, and of course many people will be frustrated and think if there is nothing good happening, then either bring them home or make a change of direction to make progress and win this thing.
Comment by sanity @ 8/6/2007 - 9:09 pm
Would you say that going from 22% to 31% that support is suring?
Comment by skeptical @ 8/6/2007 - 8:56 pm
Yes, I would. Nine percentage points in less than a month is significant. When combined with the NYT/CBS poll results showing a similar “surge” in popularity, the trend is confirmed.
Let’s keep cheering on the good guys. Perhaps Americans are starting to realize that supporting a pullout means cheering for terrorists. Not to many really want to be on that side.
Comment by Bill Hennessy @ 8/7/2007 - 12:21 am
Wow. A 9% increase, coinciding with the media blitz pimping the “change of heart” by the “anti-war liberals” O’Hanlon and Pollack?
In truth, they were chomping at the bit to go to war, their criticisms of our war efforts were late and half-hearted, and they supported the surge when it was proposed. But the war boosters latched onto this counterfactual new narrative. “Wow! Things in Iraq are going sooooo well, even the liberals are changing their tune!”
Neither of these “scholars” went to a single neighborhood in Iraq or interviewed a single Iraqi that wasn’t hand-picked by the American military. The fact that they were basically useful idiots on a Potemkin tour wasn’t mentioned in their much-touted op-ed, or any mainstream coverage (save a question from Wolf Blitzer).
If Americans suddenly think The Surge is working, these two are the primary cause. It’s not coming from the imploding, vacationing Iraqi government.
LINK
Comment by Bryce @ 8/12/2007 - 6:18 pm
Um, if you think citing Glenn Greenwald as some type of authority figure is going to win you oohs and aaahs around here, you best think again.
I’ve already linked to that piece here. And BTW, thanks for proving my point.
But we shouldn’t question your “patriotism” though, right?
Comment by Sister Toldjah @ 8/12/2007 - 7:27 pm
Just curious, how many Iraqi neighborhoods have you been to???
Comment by NC Cop @ 8/12/2007 - 7:31 pm