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Politics : Stop the War! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Techplayer who wrote (7859)	4/4/2003 10:51:00 PM
From: PartyTime	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21614

Here's a whole lot of pre-war polls. As I recall, support for the war without UN approval ultimately got to 52 percent, which was just enough for Bush to move forward. Knowing the bind Tony Blair was in in Britain, the Administration exerted tremendous public relations working the opinion of the American people. Message 18725935 In fact, Powell's UN presentation was more for American consumption than for international consumption. The following day, he and Bush did a press conference and the day after that we got the Duct Tape Terror Alert--folks easily got frightened into supporting the war. America is very good at manipulating opinion. Think. We took credit for capturing the guy we already took credit for killing, the Al Qaeda operative who plotted 9/11; we captured two of OBL's sons, and Saddam is dead. Think of all the opinion that rides with such actions. Doesn't matter these things aren't true. So long as FoxNews and AM radio conservative hosts are rallying the cry, the message will carry enough to influence the tiny sliver of middle American opinion. And that's all that counts come voting day, that tiny sliver. Would you care to comment relative to the attention span of the general public? Ah, how quickly we forget!

To: Techplayer who wrote (7859)	4/5/2003 12:05:48 AM
From: PartyTime	Respond to of 21614

Here's a pretty good compilation of several credible polls that guaged the public's mood on the eve of war >>>But it?s striking how much of this support is soft, even at this late date in the process. For example, in the same Gallup poll that registered 64 percent general support for invading Iraq, support drops to 54 percent if the United States offers a resolution to the United Nations and the UN rejects it, and to 47 percent (with 50 percent opposed) if the United States decides not to offer a resolution and proceeds with military action without a UN vote. The latter course of action now appears to be happening, so the Bush administration is taking an evenly divided public down the last few steps to war. This suggests that, after a predictable spike in support with the initial phase of the war, dissension about the war and its rationale will never be far away. The later CBS poll provides other indicators of this softness. This poll, taken right before Bush?s ultimatum speech, has 49 percent saying that the United States should take military action against Iraq even if the UN opposes that action but 40 percent saying that military action should only be taken with UN support and 9 percent saying that military action should not be taken at all. The poll also shows a slight plurality (49 percent) saying the United States should wait and give weapons inspectors more time rather than taking military action fairly soon (46 percent). By only a 50 percent to 43 percent margin the public says removing Hussein is worth the potential loss of American lives and other costs from invading Iraq.<<< tcf.org The point I was primarily making was there was a very strong public relations push on the part of the Administration to get support for the war.