Good News for the Bush Administration Posted by Ilan Goldenberg

Just how bad are things for the Administration politically?  This is what passes for good news.

A new poll released yesterday underscored the changing political environment, finding the public more positive about the military effort in Iraq than at any point in 14 months as a surge of optimism follows the rapid decline in violence.

To put this in context, the poll is talking about September of 2006.  That would be one month before the 2006 Democratic landslide.  But that's the good news.  It gets worse.

Yet Bush remains as unpopular as ever in the survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, and the public remains just as committed to bringing U.S. troops home.

In fact, if you look at the poll more carefully (PDF) the President's approval rating is down 7 points from September 2006, Democrats in Congress approval rating has not changed and support for pulling troops out of Iraq is actually up 7 points since the 2006 election and has not dropped in the past few months. 

Those Democrats who are starting to argue that candidates should back off on Iraq and start supporting a middle of the ground approach because it is wise politically, should think twice.  Of course, the Administration has gotten a bit of a boost from the reduction in violence but the overwhelming sentiment remains the same.   Start to hmm and haw now would be politics.  It would also be bad policy.

Comments

[Zathras]

The strongest critics of the war within the Democratic Party would argue that the leading Presidential candidates have been "hemming and hawing" for quite some time already, their major disagreements having been over how they voted five years ago rather than what they would do if elected next year. Liquidation of the military commitment in Iraq isn't something any of the three have pledged to do.

How are these critics wrong?

[Don Bacon]

Back off on Iraq? From 2013 to what?