FAIR: War Is Over--Say the Pundits

[tbyg52]

But it's media, not voters, who seem to have lost interest in Iraq

12/19/07

To hear many in the mainstream media tell it, the Iraq War is of diminishing importance to American voters. But the evidence for such a shift in the electorate is thin at best--suggesting that journalists and pundits are really the ones who would rather not talk about Iraq as we head into an election year.

The idea that the public was ceasing to care so much about Iraq was heard again in the Post on December 3, when pundit Peter Beinart advanced the argument in a column under the headline "Non-Story Remakes the Race." Beinart's lead example was that a recent Democratic candidates' debate featured little talk about the Iraq War. As Beinart put it, "In the biggest surprise of the campaign so far, the election that almost everyone thought would be about Iraq is turning out not to be. And that explains a lot about which candidates are on the rise and which ones are starting to fall."

Beinart also noted that the rate of deaths in Iraq has seemed to decline, so too has the media's interest in covering the war, which is showing up in the polls. Between June and November, according to NBC and the Wall Street Journal, the percentage of Americans citing Iraq as their top priority fell eight points. A Post survey recently reported a six-point decline since September.


It's worth noting that even with such a decline, Iraq still remains the top concern for voters; in the NBC poll cited by Beinart, for example, Iraq was still 10 points ahead of the next issue (healthcare). Beinart's column was nonetheless the main inspiration for New York Times columnist David Brooks' December 11 "The Postwar Election."

More:
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3231

[groovedaddy]

1. They're still taking our tax dollars to pay for this war...

they can't be serious!

[MADem]

2. There are fewer deaths. Fewer deaths, fewer reports of deaths. Fewer people wringing their hands

and saying "Oh Jesus, look at that face, he/she is so YOUNG!!!! This war is just awful, tsk, tsk...." The sound of TAPS can be a powerful reminder.

THAT's why the war is of diminishing interest to Americans. People are still going to place it first, because it's still going on, it's still costing us money, but that "ten points ahead" of health care would probably be twenty, thirty or more points ahead if the boxes were coming back from Iraq and going over to be refilled in swift rotation.

[Hosnon]

3. The war may be on the back-burner but at such a high cost (in dollars) it can, and most likely

will, rush to the head of the list of important things for 2008.

[Warpy]

4. Temporarily decreased sectarian violence in Iraq

might not be a good sign for the occupation.

It could signal the fact that the Iraqis have managed to unite into a force capable of kicking us out.

If we don't leave, we will be kicked out. That's the lesson of history.

[spanone]

5. waiting for rupert murdoch to take over the wall street journal and set journalism straight

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[Jackpine Radical]

6. Are you being sarcastic?

[spanone]

9. how many sarcasm icons do i need???

:rofl: :shrug:

[Jackpine Radical]

10. Far as I can tell, the general rule is

One more than you used.

[spanone]

11. then i suggest you look at my post. 70.

i counted SEVENTY

[Jackpine Radical]

14. So you needed 71--unless you had actually used 71, in which case

you would have needed 72.

[spanone]

15. that's good....have a great holiday!

:toast:

[Jackpine Radical]

17. God Jul...

And thanks for joining me in the War Against Whatsit.

[Jacobin]

7. Good. Then all the troops can come home tomorrow afternoon

[AndyTiedye]

8. Because All the Major Candidates Have Promised to Keep the War Going

So the 2/3 of us who want to end it simply don't matter.

And the Repiglickin' Media does the biddings of its masters, as always.

[gratuitous]

12. Of course the war is over for the media and political elites

It's not like anyone they know or anyone they're related to is in the shit. War in Iraq? That's sooooo 2004!

[MetaTrope]

13. Maybe it will be remembered when the rapist and murderer of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl goes on trial

half a year after the election

[alfredo]

16. How can the Dem candidates say much about the war if the questioner

doesn't ask about the war? Once again it is the media that is soft peddling the war.

[onethatcares]

18. war? what war?

isn't that thing over already? Except for a small paragraph on page 13 of the times above the new car sale adds, I have a hard time keeping up with the so called war. And besides, we got rid of a brutal dictator that was going to have unmanned arial drones invading the U.S. of A. at a moments notice with vials of potions that we are better not knowing what they were because Al Q was practicing getting all the wmds out of the country into pakistan before the invasion because colon powell told us the trucks were not weather balloon makers but mobile toxic weapon labs with shiny dials and stuff. But we couldn't see them being moved to Syria because our satellites don't have hbo there. So the war is over and the troops are just getting some R&R in a tropical setting.