A new Associated Press - Ipsos poll finds 57 percent oppose withdrawing from Iraq until the country is stabilized. Only 36 percent favor an immediate withdrawal.
The poll was conducted December 13 through 15 and has a margin error of plus or minus 3 percent.
This is bad news for the of the Dean - Pelosi - Reid - Murtha Defeaticrats as their cry for an immediate withdrawal fail to resonate with the public. Things will get even worse for the Democrats if the Senate Democrats follow the lead of the House Democrats and oppose strong measures to combat the flood of illegal aliens.
Be suspicious of anyone who breaks down a complex issue into two sides, whether a pollster, a spokesman for the administration, or a blogger.
As the story linked in the post notes:
"Other recent polling has found that when given additional options, many people favor a step somewhere in between having troops leave immediately and staying until the country is stabilized."
It also notes, "A year ago, 71 percent of respondents favored keeping troops in Iraq until it was stabilized."
In one year, that is quite a collapse in the "until stabilized" majority.
I'd really like to see the statements in which Democratic leaders like Dean, Reid, and Pelosi (let alone Rodham Clinton) are in favor of "immediate withdrawal." I must have missed them. But then I tend not to see the world through a polarized lens, and neither do most Americans outside the Republican Party's core.
Posted by: Matthew Shugart | Saturday, December 17, 2005 at 04:53 PM