Posted on 03/05/2003 12:12:45 AM PST by JohnHuang2
Washington Post - ABC News Poll: Iraq War
Tuesday, March 4, 2003
The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll is based on telephone interviews with 1,022 randomly selected adults nationwide, and was conducted Feb. 26 - March 2, 2003. The margin of sampling error for overall results is plus or minus 3 percentage points. Sampling error is only one of many potential sources of error in this or any other public opinion poll. Interviewing was conducted by TNS Intersearch of Horsham, Pa.
*= less than 0.5 percent
1. Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president? Do you approve/disapprove strongly or somewhat?
---------Approve--------- --------Disapprove------- No NET Strongly Somewhat NET Strongly Somewhat opin. 3/3/03 62 38 23 35 22 13 4 2/23/03 60 na na 34 na na 6
2. The Bush administration says it will move soon to disarm Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power, by war if necessary, working with countries that are willing to assist, even without the support of the United Nations. Overall, do you support or oppose this policy?
Support 59% Oppose 37 No opinion 4
Top General Sees Plan to Shock Iraq Into Surrendering*** WASHINGTON, March 4 The nation's top military officer said today that the Pentagon's war plan for Iraq entailed shocking the Iraqi leadership into submission quickly with an attack "much, much, much different" from the 43-day Persian Gulf war in 1991.
Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declined to give details. But other military officials have said the plan calls for unleashing 3,000 precision-guided bombs and missiles in the first 48 hours of a short air campaign, to be followed quickly by ground operations. ***
Precisely -- even in the face of an unrelenting media smear campaign. The power of the Fourth Estate to shape public opinion is vastly overestimated.
Doubts Temper War Support
Gender, Age and Politics Fuel Gaps in Opinion on Attacking IraqBy Richard Morin and Claudia Deane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, March 4, 2003; Page A17
Surveys conducted since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have consistently shown that a majority of Americans favor military strikes against Iraq. But this general agreement that force should be used is neither absolute, unconditional nor uniformly shared by key voting groups, an analysis of recent Washington Post-ABC News surveys suggests.
This ambivalence, most recently reflected in a Post-ABC News poll completed Sunday, raises questions about the depth and durability of public support for using force to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The poll found that 59 percent of respondents favor using military force against Iraq, even without the support of the U.N. Security Council. But four in 10 supporters also said they had reservations about the looming conflict with Iraq. When these doubters are combined with opponents of military action, the result suggests that more than six in 10 Americans harbor at least some doubts about using force while only a third are unequivocally behind going to war.
Bingo. No matter how good the numbers for Bush, the media will always find some less-than-positive detail in the poll, then make that the theme of the article.
How? With the economy the way it is and energy prices going up. Not to mention the UN and Turkey jerkin Bush around.
Amazing. Oh, I forgot. These high poll numbers are for going in WITHOUT the UN.
I hear you. This poll AND the one showing Blair with 75% approval rating. Especially with 1.7 mil Britians marching against him.
A 55% appr for Bush along with a 45%/45% split for Iraq is what I would still expect it to be. At least until Bush gets out of this UN web.
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