Americans more upbeat about Iraq, poll shows

[Barrett808]

JOE BURBANK / Orlando Sentinel
President George W. Bush reacts to the cheering audience as he greets Lt. Col. Lisette Bonano as he talks to troops at MacDill Air Force Base.

Americans more upbeat about Iraq, poll shows
By Ron Hutcheson
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - A new poll shows that Americans have become much more upbeat about events in Iraq, giving President Bush his first political boost in months.

About 57 percent of Americans think that the military effort is going well, up from 46 percent last month. During the same period, Bush went from trailing Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry to leading slightly, 48 percent to 46 percent. A month ago, Kerry was on top in the presidential race, 50 percent to 45 percent.

...

"The terrain will surely shift between now and Election Day," Larry Sabato, the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said in a campaign analysis posted on the Internet. "Anyone who believes that the election could not go either way is too partisan to be helped."

The brightening public mood on Iraq may stem from several recent developments that pierced the gloom of continuing suicide bombings and other attacks. Perhaps most important, the number of U.S. deaths in Iraq declined sharply after U.S. forces negotiated a shaky truce with militia forces led by rebel cleric Moqtada al Sadr, ending open combat against a two-month Shiite uprising.

In addition, a United Nations envoy brokered the selection of a new Iraqi interim government, and the U.N. Security Council unanimously endorsed the planned June 30 power shift there. At the same time, news coverage of the prisoner-abuse scandal has fallen off.

(more)

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/8948586.htm

[mstrsplinter326]

1. it's friday, who wouldn't be upbeat?

F the ignorant masses, that angers me...

[Sabriel]

21. Yes...it's Casual Friday for ethics! n/t

[Kukesa]

33. Are those BROWN people Shrub's with? n/t

[pfitz59]

2. Absolute BS....

"Brightening mood?" US is criminal nation, and we feel good about it?

[rooboy]

3. Let's see how "upbeat" they are when the draft begins. n/t

[Malva Zebrina]

4. totally hitleresque and getting more and more nazi like

with 47%, according to the news report on AA, approving of the war in Iraq and now this

We have not evolved, especially those humans that are citizens of the United States of America. It appears we have regressed instead using the reptillian brain to settle all problems.

[ElementaryPenguin]

18. Have to agree with you all the way...

We're fucked!

[Voltaire99]

29. Baseball, Apple Pie, Mom. . .and Abu Ghraib.

You've nailed it, Marianne. The barbarians aren't at the gates; they're at the wheels of the SUVs. And they do love their strongman leader when he kills their "enemies," oh yes.

Personally, my skin crawls when I try to conceive of the mind that would use the term "upbeat" to describe its feelings about invasion, occupation, murder, and torture. Yes, as you suggest, a Nazi mind would: the nationalist hive mind, its head so far up its collective feel-good ass that empathy is impossible.

Poor America! Parched and famished for leadership, it can't even recognize it has been led to the sewer of right wing culture. All it can do is open wide and slurp away.

[papau]

5. Pew poll? - includes polling over Reagans death and Bush's party

We will see what it says in July.

[calimary]

25. Paul Johnson's beheading won't help that. AT ALL.

Watch for the next poll to be back down again, I'd suspect.

[WI_DEM]

6. really? what has happened to make people more upbeat?

it is a mystery to me. The gipper dying? well they say he always made people feel better.

[lancdem]

9. That's it exactly

See my post below on the difference between polling done before Reagan's death and after.

[Voltaire99]

30. The Reagan weep-a-thon, but a few other things, too....

The shortlist: the G8 summit, movement at the UN, appointment of an Iraqi government, and any and all reports of Iraqi resistance being slain.

I think the key is that while Murricans don't really follow or read the news, they are attuned to the sentimental value of the mediated images they see.

Especially the cozy pictures of Bush getting on with foreign leaders will have provided a background buzz of normalcy, making the Chimp seem a member of the community of civilized nations who appears to have their approval--even when the opposite is true.

[lancdem]

7. This article is very misleading

This poll was done June 3-13, so most of it was during the 24/7 Reagan coverage which totally dominated the news. The first part of the article doesn't even mention that. Of course Bush's approval went up on Iraq - it wasn't even mentioned for a week. Keep this in mind - Bush's approval rating was 44 percent in the days before Reagan died, and 50 percent after. These results are clearly a reflection of a Reagan bounce for Bush that is probably already gone. This week alone there's been a big suicide bombing and the 9/11 Commission report.

[Beetwasher]

11. Correct, Everyone Needs To Keep In Mind ALL BAD NEWS WAS OVERSHADOWED

by Reagan's death. People are "more upbeat" about Iraq because they weren't hearing the daily bad news because of Reagan's death.

[lancdem]

17. Bingo!

The reporter doing this story was remiss in not considering that as the major factor. Duh

[saigon68]

8. They didn't ask the GOLD STAR parents !!!!!

The question would be

How do you like the War now that your Son, WAS the First one on your block to come home in a BOX ???

apologies to Country Joe

[lovedems]

10. This makes me feel sick.

:puke:

[lancdem]

15. It's an aberration

As I said, almost the entire poll was done during the Reagan mourning, when all bad news about Iraq, Abu Ghraib, etc. was pushed out of the headlines. That skewed the numbers. Keep in mind, in this poll Bush's approval rating was 44 percent June 3-5 and 50 percent in the next eight days. That bounce is artificial and is likely already gone.

[lovedems]

19. I hope you are right.

This nation suffers severely from short term and long term memory loss.

How are people capable of forgetting the 800+ dead in Iraq while watching a funeral with a flag draped casket?

I hope you are correct and his bounce was artificial and gone. I was beginning to have a sense of hope that the chimp would be sent back to Crawford and the village could resume responsibility of its idiot. The lower he got in the polls, the better I felt.

God, I hope you are right.

[hadrons]

12. less coverage to dying troops in Iraq ....

pushes up the numbers ... all the media has to do is hide it

[Shiraz]

14. Despondent

most americans believe we will be leaving at the end of the month

[BeHereNow]

13. Give yourself some hope today!

Visit some web sites about immigration to New Zealand!
It's become my favorite form of self care these days.
Better than a bubble bath!
BHN

[leftchick]

23. isn't it rather difficult to immigrate there?

I was big on NZ until I found that out. I am looking to Canada or perhaps Mexico.

[Hoping4Change]

16. People think hand-over means troops are coming home.

Don't underestimate how ill-informed many people are. I don't think the polls will be quite so rosy in July when reality sinks in.

[Career Prole]

20. They should also run a simple current events quiz.

Then they can report that an overwhelming majority of Americans are insular and ignorant.
Present company excepted, of course. :)

[chelsea0011]

22. Upbeat because they think we are getting kicked out June 30th

The American people actually think the war is winding down because of Bush and his June 30th Independence Day for Iraq. I give the Iraqi government till August 1st that they are all headed for exile.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

24. Murkin's are that ignorant!

:eyes:

[Gloria]

26. Let's see what Putin's little "Saddam/terrorist attacks on the US"

excursion does....

I vividly remember something about this idea months and months ago (not from Putin, though) and how it was laughed off the radar.....the whole thing about how Saddam just didn't have the capability or interest in such things....

[smirkymonkey]

27. How can you be F**king upbeat about a WAR?!

This is sick.

[armymom]

28. 4 US soldiers killed, 3 seriously wounded in Iraq today

In addition to three soldiers killed and three wounded when a convoy was attacked earlier today in the Sadr City slum of Baghdad...SOLDIER KILLED, CONTRACTOR WOUNDED IN MORTAR ATTACK

BAGHDAD - One Task Force Baghdad Soldier died and a Kellogg Brown and Root contractor was wounded when six mortars hit a coalition base at about 2:30 p.m., June 18. The name of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of next of kin. http://tinyurl.com/2g777

Not a peep on tv about these four soldiers killed today - no wonder people think Iraq is getting better.

[otohara]

31. zippity do da ....

Yes, Iraq is going swimmingly - how many people died this week? How many Iraqi's look at our presence as occupation? a whopping "92%"

Nearing 1000 Americans have died and this is good news?

[neuvocat]

32. I'm sure that beheading will change all that.

Bush still hasn't done anything about the first one. Boy the media is in full spin mode over this.