Reply #16: In tomorrow’s WSJ…. [View All]

[peterh]

When Howard Dean was front and center and making the noise that he did, I felt some progress….the noise has died down…notwithstanding the various books published….I’m not seeing much of a kick from the dnc or the dlc…..maybe it’s just me, but the masses really need to be kicked and slapped cause the media won’t do it unless ya get a name to start shouting again….


WSJ(4/21) Public Still Backs Bush On Iraq War

A SPATE OF new public polling produces a surprising picture: After three weeks
of the worst news yet from the yearlong American engagement in Iraq, public
support for the effort hasn't seriously eroded.
That is good news for President Bush, of course. But there may well be a time
bomb ticking away within that good news. While support for the enterprise in
Iraq is steady, it's hardly overwhelming. And both the numbers and the political
vibes around the nation's capital suggest Mr. Bush still might be headed toward
the tough decision he's hoped to avoid: whether to send more troops to Iraq
before the country lapses into a long, hot summer that could turn the numbers
around.
For now, what's most striking is what isn't happening to public sentiment.
More American soldiers have died already in April than in any month since the
U.S. invaded in March 2003. Yet in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, 51%
still said the war was worth fighting. That's essentially unchanged from early
March of this year, and it's actually up marginally from the 48% who thought the
war worthwhile in February. Hardly the ringing mandate President Bush might
want, but not the collapse of support he might have feared.
Similarly, in a new Gallup poll taken for CNN and USA Today, slightly more
than half say it was worth going to war in Iraq, essentially unchanged since
early April. About four in 10 consider sending in troops a mistake, essentially
unchanged from last October.
"Once a basic level of trust is established, the public gives the president a
lot of latitude," concludes Karlyn Bowman, who analyzes polling for the American
Enterprise Institute. "You see a lot of stability on important aspects of the
war." ......................