Monday, February 26, 2007

WaPost-ABC News Poll: More Americans trust Congress over Bush on Iraq

This is off The Washington Post:

Congressional Democrats still hold a sizable advantage over President Bush in whom the public trusts to handle the Iraq war, although the gap has narrowed somewhat since Bush's State of the Union speech, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

With Bush's approval ratings mired by the unpopular war, Americans trust congressional Democrats over Bush to handle the situation in Iraq by a margin of 54 percent to 34 percent. That is down from a 27-point gap before the president's address last month. Since that time, trust in the Democrats on the issue has slipped six points. That has not been matched by increasing confidence in Bush, but by a five-point rise in the number who trust neither the Democrats in Congress nor the president on the issue. There has also been an eight-point decline in the Democrats' advantage among independents.

Although trimmed, the Democrats maintain a substantial edge on the war in large measure because of Bush's low ratings on handling the situation in Iraq. Two-thirds of Americans disapprove of how the president is handling the Iraq war; 31 percent approve. And intensity continues to run against Bush on the issue: Fifty-five percent "strongly disapprove" of his work there, while only 17 percent "strongly approve" of it.

Bush's ratings on Iraq continue to be highly partisan. While two-thirds of Republicans approve of how Bush is handling the situation in Iraq, more than nine in 10 Democrats disapprove of the job he is doing there. Among independents, 31 percent approve and 68 percent disapprove. Intensity is also a factor here: Eighty-three percent of Democrats strongly disapprove of Bush's performance on the Iraq issue, while far fewer Republicans, 38 percent, strongly approve.

The war remains the biggest drag on the president's overall approval rating. In this poll, 36 percent approved of the way Bush is handling his job, while 62 percent disapproved. Bush's approval rating has increased marginally from five weeks ago, when it matched his career low of 33 percent.

The poll of 1,082 adults was conducted by telephone between Feb. 22 and 25 and has a margin of error of three percentage points.

First there is that six point drop on the trust of the Democrats over Bush. For the past couple of months, the Democrats have been trying to get a non-binding, no-teeth, resolution rebuking the Bush administration's troop surge in Iraq. They have failed in the Senate. And a good chunk of this failure can be attributed to the Republicans filibustering the Democrats on this issue. When the Democrats took control of Congress, there has been a lot of talk in the mainstream media at how the Democratic-controlled Congress will be a major check on the Bush administration's war in Iraq. This talk filtered down into the American publics' psyche--they thought that the Democrats could stop Bush. Apparently it is not as easy as all that punditry talk had said it would be. Hence, the six-point drop of Americans who trust the Democrats over Republicans, and the five-point increase in Americans who trust neither party.

It is now time for the Democrats to start introducing binding legislation into the debate. Senate Democrats have introduced legislation overturning the 2002 resolution allowing Bush to go to war in Iraq. And there is certainly legislation being developed to cap troops, begin withdrawals, and to adopt the Iraq Study Group recommendations. The Democrats are starting to turn up the heat here. The key here is to get these bills with teeth out into debate, introduce them into the American publics' debate, and pressure the Republicans into a poor choice of either supporting the president's, and the Republican Party's war, or supporting the American peoples' desire to get out of Iraq. We'll start seeing more legislation, with teeth, coming out over the course of this year. And the more this legislation, and debate, is brought up, the greater the pressure it will force upon the Republicans in Congress.

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