President Bush has lost his momentum, Americans' support for the Iraq war is dwindling, and opposition to Bush policies is hardening. That's according to a recent New York Times/CBS News poll being covered as if it were a real news story. Like callers to talk radio claiming to be Republicans angry with Republicans, liberals love to pretend public opinion is always in the process of shifting in their direction. They can't win elections – Democrats have gotten a majority vote in a national election only two times since FDR was president (Lyndon Johnson in '64 and Jimmy Carter in '76). But they're always experiencing an upswing in the polls. Clinton could never get a majority of Americans to vote for him but, according to the polls, as soon as the public found out about his sex romps with Monica, his support shot up to above 80 percent. Bush did get a majority of the country to vote for him less than two years ago. Now we're told 70 percent of Americans hate the man. Indeed, according to the polls, the public's feeling about the war in Iraq began three years ago with fear, skepticism and dread – and steadily went downhill. If these poll results were accurate, support for the war should be about negative 3,000 percent by now. The public would have stormed the White House, seized the president and flogged him to death. Here's a sample of New York Times headlines on stories discussing poll numbers since before the Iraq war began in March 2003: – Poll Finds Most in U.S. Support Delaying a War (2/14/03) – Opinions Begin to Shift as Public Weighs Costs of War (3/26/03) – World's View of U.S. Sours After Iraq War, Poll Finds (6/4/03) – Study Finds Europeans Distrustful of U.S. Global Leadership (9/4/03) – Despite Polls, Pataki Backs Bush on Iraq All the Way (10/3/03) – Poll Finds Hostility Hardening Toward U.S. Policies (3/17/04) – Support for War Is Down Sharply, Poll Concludes (4/29/04) – Rising Casualties, One Falling Poll (5/2/04) – Polls Show Bush's Job-Approval Ratings Sinking (5/14/04) – Bush's Rating Falls to Its Lowest Point, New Survey Finds (6/29/04) And then – despite the fact that every single man, woman and child in America opposed the war in Iraq and despised George Bush – a few months later, Bush won re-election against well-respected war hero John Kerry. Immediately after the election, public opinion polls showed Americans turning once again against the war and against George Bush, according to the Times: – Americans Show Clear Concerns on Bush Agenda (11/23/04) – Public Voicing Doubts on Iraq and the Economy, Poll Finds (1/20/05) Continued... |