{"id":12920,"date":"2007-09-18T12:51:14","date_gmt":"2007-09-18T16:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/12920.html"},"modified":"2007-09-18T12:51:14","modified_gmt":"2007-09-18T16:51:14","slug":"the-week-that-changed-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-week-that-changed-nothing\/","title":{"rendered":"The week that changed nothing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week was supposed to be a crossroads in the debate over Iraq policy. Testimony from Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker would captivate Capitol Hill; a prime-time speech from the president that pointed to the end of the surge would bring some comfort to the nation; and a controversial ad from MoveOn.org would galvanize those inclined to support the administration’s policy. Everything would be different.<\/p>\n

At least, that’s what we were told would happen. David Broder, for example, said<\/a> the MoveOn ad “was disgraceful, and it probably did serious damage to the effort to shorten the Iraq war.” Indeed, Glenn Greenwald noted<\/a> today that the media establishment were in complete agreement about the political landscape.<\/p>\n

* Jonathan Weisman and Shailagh Murray, The Washington Post: “MoveOn.org provided Republicans a life raft when it ran a full-page newspaper advertisement Monday taunting Petraeus as ‘General Betray Us.'”<\/p>\n

* Time’s Joe Klein: “It seems clear the President has won this round. An optimistic general will trump a skeptical politician anytime.”<\/p>\n

* Fred Barnes, The Weekly Standard: “For Democrats, Petraeus Week was a wrenching ordeal. . . . The New York Times ad by MoveOn.org trashing Petraeus as a liar backfired badly. . . . The prospect of a return engagement by Petraeus can only fill Democrats with a feeling of dread.”<\/p>\n

* Fox News favorite Susan Estrich: “The Democrats, especially the Democrats running for president, have a problem, and his name is Petraeus.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Given all of this, I guess we should see quite a shift in public opinion, right? After all, the pundits were convinced that Bush, Petraeus, and MoveOn had shifted the landscape considerably.<\/p>\n

Except, Americans apparently didn’t see it that way<\/a>.
\n<\/p>\n

Most Americans continue to want troops to start coming home from Iraq, and most say the plan President Bush announced last week for troop reductions doesn’t go far enough, according to a CBS News poll released Monday.<\/p>\n

While the president spoke of a long-term commitment to Iraq in his nationally televised address, a time frame longer than two years is not acceptable to most Americans. […]<\/p>\n

Sixty-eight percent of Americans say that U.S. troop levels in Iraq should either be reduced or that all troops should be removed – similar numbers to those before Mr. Bush’s speech.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What’s more, despite non-stop praise for Petraeus, Americans watching last week’s developments weren’t persuaded at all. Indeed, the public seems to have rejected all of the administration’s rhetoric.<\/p>\n

Only about one in three (31 percent) said the surge has made things in Iraq better, while more than half (51 percent) say it’s had no impact. Eleven percent say it’s made things worse.<\/p>\n

Overall, Americans remain pessimistic about the war. Just 34 percent think things are going well for the U.S. in Iraq, while 63 percent say things are going badly – about the same as before the president’s speech.<\/p>\n

More than half of Americans (55 percent) believe that success in Iraq is unlikely, and nearly two-thirds (65 percent) think Mr. Bush’s assessments of the situation there are too rosy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So much for the week that would change everything — and the chattering class’ ability to assess public opinion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week was supposed to be a crossroads in the debate over Iraq policy. Testimony from Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker would captivate Capitol Hill; a prime-time speech from the president that pointed to the end of the surge would bring some comfort to the nation; and a controversial ad from MoveOn.org would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12920","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=12920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}