{"id":10624,"date":"2007-04-26T11:15:12","date_gmt":"2007-04-26T15:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/10624.html"},"modified":"2007-04-26T11:15:12","modified_gmt":"2007-04-26T15:15:12","slug":"dems-vs-gop-on-the-war-its-not-even-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/dems-vs-gop-on-the-war-its-not-even-close\/","title":{"rendered":"Dems vs. GOP on the war? It’s not even close"},"content":{"rendered":"

I noticed last night that Atrios, highlighting the results of the latest NBC\/WSJ poll, said<\/a>, “People hate Bush and hate the war. I don’t know what it’ll take for that to enter the bloodstream of Official Washington.”<\/p>\n

It’s exactly why I found it curious that Republican pollster Neil Newhouse, who helped conduct the poll for NBC and the WSJ, suggested<\/a> the results weren’t clear cut.<\/p>\n

Yet Newhouse, the GOP pollster, says that there are dangers for the Democrats if they decide to go too far on Iraq. “The Democrats risk overplaying the Iraq issue by tying the president’s hands on funding. Yes, Americans want Congress to put pressure on the president for a timetable for withdrawing from Iraq, but that doesn’t mean they want Congress to sidestep the president and do it on their own.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Has Newhouse not read his own poll? How much clearer do these results<\/a> have to be?<\/p>\n

As the Democrat-controlled Congress and the White House clash over an Iraq spending bill, with President Bush vowing to veto it because it contains withdrawal deadlines, the latest NBC News\/Wall Street Journal poll finds that a solid majority of Americans side with the Democrats.<\/p>\n

In addition, a nearly equal number believe that victory in Iraq isn’t possible, and about only one in eight think the war has improved in the three months since Bush called for a troop increase there.<\/p>\n

“They don’t see the surge working,” says Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted the survey with Republican pollster Neil Newhouse. Instead, they are saying “we need to get out.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By any reasonable measure, the data should be considered unspinnable.
\n
\n* The poll shows that 56% of Americans say they agree more with congressional Democrats about a timeline for troop withdrawal, as opposed to 37% who say they agree with Bush.<\/p>\n

* 55% believe “victory” in Iraq is no longer possible.<\/p>\n

* 49% (a plurality) believe Iraq has gotten worse since the start of the president’s so-called “surge” policy. (Only 12% believe conditions in Iraq have improved.)<\/p>\n

* Only 22% believe the country is on the right track — the lowest in an NBC\/WSJ poll since October 1992.<\/p>\n

Newhouse think Dems should hesitate? That Americans are loath to see Dems “sidestep the president”? I’m not a professional pollster, but it’s hard to see how these results bolster this argument.<\/p>\n

As for the White House, the president said<\/a> on Tuesday, “Last November, the American people said they were frustrated and wanted a change in our strategy in Iraq. I listened.” That’s clearly ridiculous<\/a>, but if Bush is really intent on “listening” to the public, we seem to be speaking rather clearly right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I noticed last night that Atrios, highlighting the results of the latest NBC\/WSJ poll, said, “People hate Bush and hate the war. I don’t know what it’ll take for that to enter the bloodstream of Official Washington.” It’s exactly why I found it curious that Republican pollster Neil Newhouse, who helped conduct the poll for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10624\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}