Wednesday, January 11

THE BUSH BOUNCE IS MOSTLY SPIN, LITTLE HEIGHT

The Pew Research Center is not my favorite polling center. They often ask the right questions in the wrong way, which leads to skewed results. But their most recent results do offer some interesting insights on American opinions.

1. Bush's approval ratings remain at 38% (54% disapproval).

2. Democrats have made significant gains in being perceived as the "party better able to handle" major national problems, excluding security/terrorism. Americans see the war in Iraq as the nation's single most important problem, although in diminishing numbers from last year.

3. A huge majority of those polled oppose government monitoring of their phones and e-mails (73%) and credit card records (68%)

4. The country is pretty evenly divided as to whether the use of force in Iraq was the right decision (45%) or the wrong decision (47%), and on what to do now (keep the troops in Iraq, 48%; bring them home, 48%). The results are similar when measuring the perception of whether the war has hurt, or helped, the war on terrorism. 48% say it has helped; 46% say it has either hurt or had no effect.'

5. Clear majorities think we "are making progress" in training Iraqi forces, establishing a democracy, rebuilding roads, power plants, etc. (what universe are THEY living in?), and preventing a terrorist base for attacks. Majorities also believe we are NOT making progress in defeating the insurgents, preventing a civil war, and reducing civilian casualties.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home