Wolf Howling: Pew Poll

Friday, February 29, 2008

Obaminations & Bad News (For the Left) On Iraq

I asked in an earlier post whether Obama was unprincipled and being less than honest with America. This report on Canadian television, if true, clearly answers those questions.

(H/T Taylor Marsh)

Obama's campaign has denied this reports accuracy. The television station that broke the story is standing by its veracity. Update: More at Powerline. Update 2: Hot Air is reporting that the television station has named Austin Goolsbee, a economic advisor of the Obama Campaign, as the person that contacted the Canadian government, and he is refusing to admit or deny the conversation.

Update: And it would seem that the remainder of the Democratic Party leadership is troubled by this "trade tirade."

And there have been some significant changes in U.S. pulic opinion about Iraq. This from the most recent Pew Research Poll:

Public perceptions of the situation in Iraq have become significantly more positive over the past several months, even as opinions about the initial decision to use military force remain mostly negative and unchanged.

The number of Americans who say the military effort is going very or fairly well is much higher now than a year ago (48% vs. 30% in February 2007). There has been a smaller positive change in the number who believe that the U.S. will ultimately succeed in achieving its goals (now 53%, up from 47% in February 2007). . . .

Public perceptions about U.S. progress in Iraq continue to improve. In fact, in a number of areas those with positive evaluations outnumber those with negative views.

For the first time since Pew began tracking the question in December 2005, more respondents say that the United States is making progress in reducing civilian casualties (46%) than say it is losing ground (40%). Similarly, 49% now say the United States is making progress in defeating the insurgents, while just 35% say it is losing ground. A majority (57%) now says the U.S. is making progress in training Iraqi military forces (29% say the U.S. is losing ground).

Even on the key political objective of establishing democracy in Iraq, a plurality (49%) says the U.S. is making progress (vs. 40% who say the U.S. is losing ground). This is the first time since the fall of 2006 that a plurality sees progress on this measure. On another key objective, however, the plurality view remains negative. While more now say the U.S. is making progress in preventing a civil war between various religious and ethnic groups (35% now vs. 18% a year ago), just under half says the United States is losing ground on this objective (49% vs. 68% a year ago). . . .

As AllahPundit at Hot Air asks:

In case you were wondering why the Democrats are running from this debate, it’s because the more public opinion shifts, the more their willingness to abandon Iraq looks less like a “realist” exit strategy than calculated defeatism. Even so, note how inelastic most of the results are despite the security gains (especially in Anbar). The microresults show impressive shifts — click the image and follow the link to see double digit swings in the “Growing Perceptions of Iraq Progress” graph — but the baseline results below are static. I wonder why.

(H/T Instapundit)

Interesting News From Around The Web

Saudi Arabia says they have captured 200 al Qaeda types who planned attacks on the oil infrastructure.

Geert Wilders, a conservative Dutch politician, is making a film to highlight the "fascist" passages in the Quran. Muslim immigrants now account for 1,000,000 of the 16,000,000 in population of the Netherlands.

Musharaff has stepped down as Pakistan’s military commander and been sworn in as President.

“Iraq? What does that have to do with anything?” According to the Hill, “Congressional Democrats will focus on the economy next week in an effort to win political advantage from public fears about an approaching recession.” Perhaps they can explain how spending our tax dollars to fund billions in pork in the Defense and Water bills is helping our economy while they are at it.

Beware!!! Iraq is more dangerous . . . Things are so bad that the UN has had to step in . . . to help Iraq deal with the large scale return of refugees.

But despite this horrendous security situation, Iraqi’s decide to celebrate Baghdad Day anyway

Bank of America now changes its recommendation on New York Times stock to “sell.” Go Pinch. Maybe Murdoch will do us all a favor and make an offer.

Jules Crittenden covers the “mood swing” as Americans begin to see Iraq as going well. That is very bad news for the Copperheads.