Cut-and-run nation

July 27, 2006

There are a handful of interesting national polls out today from a variety of news outlets, including NPR and NBC/Wall Street Journal, but I think Greg Sargent found the most important polling numbers of the day from the new CBS/New York Times poll. As Greg noted, it inexplicably didn’t make it into the Times’ article on the poll results, but the questions regarding Iraq and the future of the war are nevertheless startling.

Among the key points:

Do you think the United States should or shouldn’t set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq? Should: 56 Should not: 40

Do you think it is worth the loss of life and other costs for the United States to remain in Iraq until there’s a stable democracy there, or is it not worth the loss of life and other costs, or are you unsure? Worth it: 25 Not worth it: 42 Unsure: 32

How do you think the war with Iraq is affecting the United States’ image in the world? Is the war making the U.S. image in the world better, making it worse, or is the war having no effect on the U.S. image in the world? Better: 10 Worse: 72 No effect: 12

Regardless of how you usually vote, do you think the Republican Party or the Democratic Party is more likely to make the right decisions about the war in Iraq? Republican: 36 Democrat: 42

After all the “cut and run” and “retreat and defeat” smears, all the talk about “waving the white flag,” and all the GOP arguments about the merit in “staying the course,” a majority of the country still thinks Dems are right and Republicans are wrong about the war.

Rumor has it that the GOP is anxious to use the 2006 elections to talk about which party is more reliable on national security and foreign policy. If Dems run away from the issue, with the public already supporting the party’s position on Iraq, they’re missing a painfully obvious opportunity.

Whether it’s Iraq or Global Warming, the Republican’ts have the same Thelma and Louise solution. They are going to keep going in the same direction and floor it…

… and soar gracefully over the edge into the Grand Canyon.

I think it is kind of sad that still 36% of Americans think the Republican’ts can make the right decisions about Iraq after four years of doing it all wrong.

  • Just goes to show how pathetic the Democratic Party has become. . . a majority of the country supports their ideas, yet still rejects them outright at the voting booth. That’s oversimplifying the situation (I mean, did Boy George ever really get elected?), but the fact that we can even have this discussion is absurd.

  • I’m suprised that I haven’t heard anybody say this, turning the withdrawal=dishonor argument on its head. Call it the
    “leave no man behind” message, if you will:

    When our soldiers are sent in harm’s way, the promise made to them is that we will remember and respect their sacrifices, that we won’t send them into danger and then turn our back on them. But this is exactly what is happening: President Bush got us in this war, and now that it’s turned ugly, he’s committed to “stay the course”– not to win a military victory, but to protect the honor of the President.

    It goes without saying that you “leave no man behind.” The current policy, in effect, is exactly the opposite of that: we have 130,000 soldiers left behind in Iraq, because the president can’t stand up to the political fire that will focus on him if he goes back to get them out.

  • Eric has it exactly right. This is about honor, not the honor of our nation, but the honor of GWB. If he had cared about the honor of our country, he would not have violated the public trust by lying to get us into a war. He has single-handedly destroyed our nation’s horor. It is clear the GWB had a grudge because of the failed assassination attempt on GHWB and that grudge was manipulated by certain interests to produce a very profitable war for those same interests.

  • Do you think it is worth the loss of life and other costs for the United States to remain in Iraq until there’s a stable democracy there, or is it not worth the loss of life and other costs, or are you unsure? Worth it: 25 Not worth it: 42 Unsure: 32 – from the post

    That’s a lot of handwringers in the Unsure column. Or “my country right or wrong”er’s trying to decipher the smell emanating from the brain fart hovering around 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and realizing their gov’t is full of beans and stinky brain farts is ALL they’re ever going to get from ShrubCo.

    Somebody light a match.

  • Yes, we are indeed “missing a painfully obvious opportunity”, especially the overpaid establishment Democratic slobs in the House and Senate. Guess they haven’t yet had what they consider to be overwhelmingly conclusive focus-group results.

    You don’t need a weather man
    To know which way the wind blows.
    – Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues

  • Funny, I wonder if most Americans realize that when the GOP sneeringly use that “cut and run” phrase, that these same GOP politicians are sneering at average voters as well. If I though congressmen were sneering at me and my beliefs I wouldn’t vote for them.

  • Potential responces to the poll numbers from the right:

    1. Bush needs to improve the message as to why we need to stay in Iraq.

    2. The pollsters only called people who are registered Democrats.

    3..The questions are poorly worded.

    4. CBS/New York Times. What else do we have to say? Bunch of America-hating, terrorist-loving liberals

    5. The respondents were distracted by their tv’s, or were obviously drunk.

  • Gracious at #4–I don’t even give him “credit” for having a grudge because of the assassination attempt on GHWB. I think Cheney was able to exploit W’s need to surpass his daddy. A lot of folks on the right thought it was a mistake not to go all the way to Baghdad in ’91 and resented Powell and GHWB for it. I think lil W wanted to show dad he was a bigger man and “finish the job.” I guess I don’t think GWB has any kind of honor.

  • Sagacity: I agree. GWB actually has no honor, but he has false pride which is a very dangerous quality in a leader. I also agree that he was going to show Daddy how it is done, and that he was manipulated by the people who did not like his father’s “cut and run” decision.

    But it is his false pride that will not allow him to admit failure, and that’s too bad. Because of that particular quality in Bush I am afraid we will have many more dead people before this is over.

  • Someone with the resources should start showing up outside Bush appearances witha parrot trained to constantly repeat “Stay the course!” on cue.

  • Bad policy and bad action leave no good options. There is no right way to end this.

    We can ask this question of America about any number of issues or even its reason for existence: To what end?

    No matter what our noble mission, if the end product is a seriously diminished habitat on earth for all creatures, then we will have utterly failed the most basic test — living on earth like we were the first and not the last generation to inhabit the planet. Al Gore had it right, the central organizing principle has to be the earth and how man can become a leaver instead of a taker. If we gauge our freedoms by how much we can take then we are certainly on the wrong path. And that just about describes how we measure success.

    In the end of our journey in Iraq, all that will matter is how and who gets the oil out.

  • “In the end of our journey in Iraq, all that will matter is how and who gets the oil out.” – lou

    I’d love to just leave it where it is. We can live on the Earth comfortably because all this carbon is sequestered deep underground. Boy George II and his Texas Mafia want to dig or drill it all up and burn it. They are literally poisoning our air simply to get more grotesquely rich.

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