Poll: Americans Want to Win
47 percent of Americans now think we’re making progress in Iraq, despite the best efforts of our major news media organizations to ignore this, to bury it, to cast it in the worst possible light. Â
This is before our top generals have had the opportunity to address Congress and the nation. This is after repeated efforts by Congress and presidential candidates to portray Iraq as a disaster we must abandon at allow costs, though it very likely would mean we bear witness to genocide and wear a national stain of shame and cowardice in perpetuity.
That is not the number that CNN chose to highlight in its poll, however. This war has had approval ratings in the 30s and disapproval ratings in the 60s for over a year now. But what did CNN find remarkable in its poll results?   Â
WASHINGTON (CNN) — A majority of Americans don’t trust the upcoming report by the Army’s top commander in Iraq on the progress of the war and even if they did, it wouldn’t change their mind, according to a new poll.
President Bush frequently has asked Congress — and the American people — to withhold judgment on his so-called troop surge in Iraq until Gen. David Petraeus, the commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, issue their progress report in September.
But according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Thursday, 53 percent of people polled said they suspect that the military assessment of the situation will try to make it sound better than it actually is. Forty-three percent said they do trust the report.
Well, patience is something CNN, the surrender camp et al never had. Withhold judgment? Are you kidding? Not while there is any chance of convincing people that victory is defeat, defeat victory. Roll out the judgment polling, pronto!
But wait, there’s something interesting:
Another interesting thing about the poll, Holland said, is that it indicates that about half of those surveyed — 47 percent — feel that the military is making progress in Iraq, although slightly more — 49 percent — do not.
Given the recent history of polling and media coverage of this war, I’d call that positively fascinating … unless I was in the anti-war camp, and had staked my political future on an American disaster, in which case I’d be making like al Qaeda, getting the heck out of Baquba, and throwing bombs in my wake …
This is also interesting, though buried way down:
Of those opposed to the war, 47 percent said Petreaus’ report could not change their mind while 17 percent said it could.
Sounds like trouble in the ranks. Support for surrender … spongy.Â
Given the history, I’d have to call this poll nothing less than a ringing endorsement of Gen. Petraeus and the current strategy in Iraq: CNN poll finds Americans want to win.
White House press secretary Tony Snow reacted to the poll, saying that he hoped that “people do not try to engage in personal attacks on Gen. Petraeus or Ambassador Crocker.”
Too late, Tony. This CNN poll is just the start of that campaign.
“David Patraeus is basically the guy who’s written the manual on counterinsurgency, and the one thing that you see with returning Democratic and Republican congressman is that something very significant has taken place,” Snow said.
Exactly why it is necessary to discredit him in every way possible. Starting with highlighting a majority in poll numbers and neglecting to point out it is so narrow it verges on insignificance, and reflects a sea change in the thinking of the American public.
Even though most of them are not receiving news like this.Â
Welcome Punditeers, Farkers, Boltists! Come on in.  You’d be surprised who’s ready to give war a chance. Uh oh, it’s Tora Bora all over again. Better luck this time. Don’t want to get stuck up a creek with a Padilla. It’s the weekend, anyone up for The Fall of Rome? Turns out it’s all about us. Oh yeah, I almost forgot: Go to hell.  But watch out for the she-devil.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:44 am on Friday, August 17, 2007
18 Responses to “Poll: Americans Want to Win”
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August 17th, 2007 at 9:21 am
I’d like to see how the questions were leadingly worded. It’s common knowledge you can get the results you want by how you word the questions, and I wouldn’t trust CNN any more than I would MSNBC in any matter involving public policy. If the MSNBC newsroom boos Republicans, what do you think the CNN crew does?
August 17th, 2007 at 9:54 am
Americans Want To Win (Or What Happens When The Media Selective Reports On Their Own Polls)
From Jules Crittenden: 47 percent of Americans now think we’re making progress in Iraq, despite the best effort by our major news media organizations to ignore this, to bury it, to cast it in the worst possible light. That is not the number that …
August 17th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Web Reconnaissance for 08/17/2007
A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.
August 17th, 2007 at 11:58 am
Exactly right, Banjo.
Probably 53 percent of the people picked answer B in a question like this:
Which of the following best represents your opinion:
A. The military can always be trusted to provide the correct information about its own operations.
B. Military operations are best understood when placed in a larger context by a professional news analyst.
C. No one should ever trust anyone.
August 17th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Sarah, did they ask the question before or after they said “Sen. Reid says.”
Another thing that bothers me is that they are continuing this type of reporting even after finding out that their circulation figures are tanking. Are their figures really tanking? Why would someone drive themselves out of business and lessen their effectiveness.
August 17th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
[...] that has defined the Iraq narrative over the past several years, this is, as Jules Crittenden argues, nothing short of [...]
August 17th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
I think we need to update that old saw about “Lies, damned lies, and statistics” to include polls.
Or maybe not, since polls use statistics. But it’s a convincing argument not to trust any polls.
August 17th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
I still maintain that the difference between most Americans and what we (for want of a better term) call “the Left”, is that no matter who the Commander in Chief is, we still want America to win, and the other folks don’t. I think it is that simple although I cannot for the life of me figure out what they think they would get out of an American defeat that would be worth having.
August 17th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
although I cannot for the life of me figure out what they think they would get out of an American defeat that would be worth having.
Beyond a vague, wistful desire for “world peace”, they don’t really know, and that’s what’s so scary in people who have a modicum of influence in the world.
August 17th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
MikeH says:
Why would someone drive themselves out of business and lessen their effectiveness.
I suspect that they evade any knowledge of the cause of falling subscriptions, just as they evade any knowledge that doesn’t fit their preconceived notions about everything else.
RebeccaH says:
Beyond a vague, wistful desire for “world peace” . . .
I used to give people the benefit of the doubt about their desire for world peace, but I no longer do so. There is ample evidence that the philosophy of the left not only doesn’t lead to world peace, but is actually the cause behind the ineffable suffering and death of unfathomable numbers of people who have lived the philosophy. No honest person wants to continue actions that inexorably lead to that kind of suffering–not and claim that it will somehow lead to world peace. I’ve begun to think that the peace they speak of is the peace of the grave. Consider how people continue to denigrate the Industrial Revolution and capitalism, and praise socialism (in whatever form it takes). The first has produced more life-giving progress in the last 200 years than in all of human history. The latter has built Everests of corpses.
August 17th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Salty, if you can stand it, read “The Nation” mag sometime. They profess “World Peace” ahead of all other virtues, and then go on to glorify violent Lefty thugs everywhere they find them.
August 17th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
So only a third approve of the war? What kind of question is that. No one approves of war, that is not the point. Why not ask do you enjoy mayhem? It is a dumb question.
I do think that most people prefer winning to losing. It is just that some people have a different idea of what that means.
I for one can not imagine leaving Iraq in the hands of the kind of people who could damn near wipe out a village for no other reason than the sheer nasty fun of it.
August 17th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Terrye, you grasp a reality that some others couldn’t find if it were on a billboard outside their livingroom window under klieg lights.
August 17th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Frankly I wonder how much of the antiwar thinking is from the perception that we’ve been following a losing strategy. I’ve always thought that we should have blown up everything of any possible military use and left. I am totally uninterested in the well being of Iraqis, or Iranians, Saudis or any of that crowd.
Elect me King and I’ll introduce the Peter Doctrine. Say one word against America, we blow up anything useful and cut off all aid. And we keep doing it until THEY are terrorized. I’m tierd of a culture that cannot even build their own airplanes thinking that I should be afraid of them.
August 17th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
[...] It must really suck to be an anti-war Bush-hater these days. Well, it’s probably always sucked, but especially now, considering the turn-arounds we’re seeing in opinion from Democrat members of Congress, other war critics (more here) and the American public (Jules Crittenden has more on that here). [...]
August 17th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
Gosh, aren’t they just flipping exhausted with their tireless, yet fruitless, campaign against Bush? You would think at this point they would just give. it. up.
MSM is going down in a blaze - not of glory - just a big fat ginormous bonfire.
August 20th, 2007 at 11:01 am
[...] that is why the surrender monkeys have redeployed from Camp Casey. Hat tip on that second poll to Jules Crittenden of the Boston [...]
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:28 am
[...] while polls consistently have indicated that while Americans may not like fighting wars, they like losing them less. Same thing with pols, when push comes to [...]