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Poll: Big Majority Still Wants Withdrawal Timetable
MSNBC teases the results of a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll coming this evening:
With the news that Iraq's prime minister wants the US to set a timetable for withdrawal, 60% of registered voters believe it's a good idea for the US to set such a timetable, while 30% say it's a bad idea.
Twice as many voters agree with Obama and al-Maliki on Iraq than agree with McCain -- after weeks of being buffeted by the McCain message that calling for a withdrawal timeline is tantamount to advocating for surrender, defeat, and even dishonor to the troops.
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But what about a time-HORIZON?!
http://strategy08.wordpress.com
July 23, 2008 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
don't think anyone has polled that one yet...
July 23, 2008 3:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Greg,
Here's the real question: how does this figure compare with other times this question has been asked?
July 23, 2008 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
A serious question for Greg. Is there any evidence that the McCain campaign is doing any polling of these issues before they launch these attacks. I know every politician likes to pretend that they don't poll, but good campaigns test ideas out before they launch them. Just looking at McCain's FEC disbursments for June, I couldn't see any expenditures for polling or even consultants who might do polling. Admittedly I'm not sure who does that work for McCain so I may just be missing it (though I easily found polling expenditures for Obama). I guess it's also possible the RNC bears those costs. But the campaign has just been so tone deaf, I can't imagine they are even taking the basic step to see if people agree with the points they're making.
If they aren't spending money on polling that would seem to be basic campaign malpractice.
July 23, 2008 4:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
What about an Iraq war holiday?
July 23, 2008 3:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
The voters couldn't wrap their brains around that word, "Horizon." Too nebulous.
July 23, 2008 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Last Friday I heard a "time horizon" being described as a "time table without dates". It's sort of like one of those Andy Card Powerpoints that shows a few horizontal bars on a page that are described as "phases" or "a roadmap" without any dates or durations. It's sort of like when you have some consulting work done by an Andy Card-like consultant and you pay a lot of money for it and the result is not usable for doing anything.
July 23, 2008 3:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hope that the presidential numbers are in the same direction.
July 23, 2008 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain cannot flip flop on timelines, so Obama wins this debate. If Obama can tie McCain to Bush on the other big issue--the economy--he'll be running downhill by November. The issue that worries me is the Bradley effect in the swing states. As of today the polls are extremely close in Virginia, Ohio, Colorado, Nevada, etc. Will swing voters in these states really vote for a black man?
July 23, 2008 3:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm hoping that the enthusiasm gap and better organization offsets the Bradley effect.
I'm crossing my fingers that we make the right choice this year.
July 23, 2008 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
not to mention all the newly registered Democrats...........ACROSS the country, who aren't yet in the "likely voters" list to even be polled. How can they be "likely" if they were never before registered?
July 23, 2008 3:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't worryganize. Organize.
July 23, 2008 4:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
No great surprise that the percentage opposed to a timeline is roughly equal to that delusional sector of the population who still support Bush.
July 23, 2008 3:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I gather that the remaining 10 percent had no opinion?
July 23, 2008 3:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
An anonymous commenter at Politico just posted this:
MCCAIN CAMPAIGN: A NOUN, A VERB and the SURGE.
I'd revise it. Everything out of the McCain campaign is a noun, a verb, and the surge.
Great stuff.
July 23, 2008 3:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Everything out of McCain is Metamucil, a glass of water, and the surge.
July 23, 2008 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
To counter Obama's speech in Munich tomorrow, McCain will be speaking...at an oil rig. I have no idea how Jonathan Martin can say, with a straight face, that the photo op will have "memorable images" and "an equally striking if very different backdrop."
http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0708/McCain_to_counterprogram_Obama_in_Germany_with_visit_to_Gulf_Coast_oil_rig.html?showall
July 23, 2008 3:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps Hurricane Dolly will cause that particular oil platform to spill.
July 23, 2008 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Too bad he's going to helicopter in, I was really hoping he'd take the bus.
July 23, 2008 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well CNN says the oil-rig stunt has been canceled due to the hurricane bearing down the gulf coast. His case is also not very much helped by the oil spill off the Louisiana coast.
July 23, 2008 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hopefully it'll be one of those Chinese oil platforms off the coast of Cuba...
July 23, 2008 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Did they also poll to see how many of these voters were high ranking military experts? Voters shouldn't really have an opinion on tactics. The timetable is a tactic. The strategy is to leave as soon as there is stability. Obama, McCain and Maliki seem to agree.
This whole timetable nonsense reminds me so much of Nixon's guarantee to end the Vietnam war.
Obama and Nixon have something in common here.
July 23, 2008 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fail.
July 23, 2008 3:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, no, for once I think Foghat's on to something here. Eisenhower, like Nixon, was elected on a promise to end a war. I like that hopeful precedent. Thanks, Fog!
July 23, 2008 3:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
In the case of Eisenhower and Nixon, there was a draft. There seems to be a different dynamic at work now.
July 23, 2008 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not when it comes to making false promises.
July 23, 2008 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
So you are a fan of Nixon. Explains alot.
July 23, 2008 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
No more a fan of Nixon than you are a "supporter" of Clinton. Ha!
July 23, 2008 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
The you do support Nixon.
July 23, 2008 4:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nope. I was not of voting age when Tricky was running, anyway. :) But you are most assuredly a Limbaugh troll who in no way/shape/form supported Clinton.
July 23, 2008 4:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama > Nixon
July 23, 2008 3:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're right, I would vote for Obama over Nixon. It's amazing how you take all those things we're all thinking and put them into words!
July 23, 2008 3:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
yes, obama is greater than nixon. glad the scales have fallen from your eyes.
July 23, 2008 3:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually in many ways Nixon was more liberal than Obama.
Where they are the same is that they are (or were in Nixon's case) both liars.
July 23, 2008 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think the Nixon comparison well dried up after your candidate lost, boyo.
July 23, 2008 4:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
see, "the same" is ususally indicated by an equal sign (=). what you used is called a "greater than" sign (>). now when your teacher introduces these symbols, you'll be ahead of the other kids.
July 23, 2008 4:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Epic
July 23, 2008 3:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Irrelevant
July 23, 2008 3:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
also apt. your self-analysis is refreshing!
July 23, 2008 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Still irrelevant.
July 23, 2008 4:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
indeed.
July 23, 2008 5:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think he is trying to tell you jus' how irrelevant to the discussion he is becoming.
jus' a right wing freudian slip or somthin'
July 28, 2008 12:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm guessing the H2H will be either flat or down for Obama, leading to story after story about how this trip is backfiring because he's too presumptuous. Joe Klein has gotten things started, but he will hardly be the only one.
When you are a Dem, there is no winning.
July 23, 2008 3:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
"When you are a Dem, there is no winning".
Yep. This spectacular overseas trip by Obama, in which he has handled every situation well, is a problem because it doesn't show a bump in his polling.
First of all, he's still over there. What about that doesn't Joe get? Second, foreign affairs isn't up there on the list of concerns these days, so maybe people aren't watching.
In any event, if the H2H's are closer, we're goign to hear a lot of stuff about "presumptuous" Obama. Hilarious. But then, this is the same gang of political insiders who were whispering about his fundraising "troubles" just last week,
And here's some speculation on my part: is it possible that the numbers might be even more in favor of Obama? I'm wondering about the bizarre harsh comments out of the McCain campaign this week. I'm wondering if they have some internal polling that spells bad news for McCain.
Just a thought.
July 23, 2008 3:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hope you're right about the internal polling, but McCain's team is so ineffectual, we can't really count on a logical cause and effect. Little of what they do makes sense.
July 23, 2008 3:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama staked the claim to being the candidate who wants to bring the troups home and McCain staked his claim to being the candidate who wanted to keep the troups in Iraq for 50 to 100 years. Game over.
July 23, 2008 3:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought when Iraqi government says, "they will be able handle things for themselves, thank you for all that you have done, and you can go home in 16 to 20 months", that is a VICTORY.
As for time horizon. What the hell is that? Everytime I take step towards the horizon, it takes a step back. The time horizon is a time table that never happens.
July 23, 2008 3:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
What does handle thing themselves mean? What if they can't? Do we have to stay?
July 23, 2008 3:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
The "Obama caveat". Obama's deceit is that if elected he will quickly explain why we can't leave as soon as promised.
He did a switch and bait in the nomination, why doubt he'll do it if elected.
He unprincipled and inexperienced.
July 23, 2008 4:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course it is! It's just around the corner. Sheesh!
July 23, 2008 5:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
The McBushSame event has been canceled because of the weather...
It is another bad week for McbushSame...
There is still a long way to go...
It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow in Germany...
July 23, 2008 3:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
The weather is a convenient excuse. The bigger problem probably was the oil spill.
Oops.
July 23, 2008 3:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, there's still the possibility of a VP announcement as this week's trump card. McCain doesn't seem to know when to hold 'em / fold 'em.
July 23, 2008 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
lol...Indeed...that is a good one ct...
Poor McBushSame, he is playing hide and seek to be kept in the headlines, arguing with his campaign that he disagrees about the media...
The entire message of the McbushSame of the week is "Surge"
I guess this is helping his economic message...
July 23, 2008 4:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Does this answer your question?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080723/ts_nm/economy_usa_politics_poll_dc_7
Economists prefer McCain by more than 3:1. Go figure.
July 23, 2008 4:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, last I checked, there's only 29 economists in the entire country. In fact, there can only be 29 by law. To become an economist, you have to defeat one of them in mortal combat.
July 23, 2008 4:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
But Hillary told me not to trust them fancy shmancy economists.
Gas Tax Holiday! Everyone gets a pony!
July 23, 2008 4:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
No! I want that puppy in the window!
July 23, 2008 4:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fascinating. I heard another poll split 50/50 for the bond market while a third found Obama preferred 2/1 for the derivative market.
These are bank economists. Is anyone surprised to think that McCain would be better for wealthy investors? This is all about tax policy and regulatory control. It has nothing to do with who will do a better job for the economy. they say so themselves:
Go back under your rock.
July 23, 2008 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
The vast majority of Americans with savings have a good portion of them in the stock market. As the market goes, so goes America. Try telling people they should sacrifice their retirement for pie-in-the-sky idealism. Good luck on that one.
July 23, 2008 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
mcThuseleh is the candidate of wall street. why am i not surprised? just wait till phil gramm is secretary of treasury. he's an economist, too!
July 23, 2008 4:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
boy when it rain it pours for mcsame...................
July 23, 2008 4:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
why doesn't mcSame want to be photographed with the oil spill? shows he won't be pushed around with those tourism industry hippies.
July 23, 2008 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
pushed around by...
July 23, 2008 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not surprised at all by these poll results.
More Americans want out.
Iraqi government now says it's time to go.
Most people are going to react, "Well, what are we waiting for?!?"
What, indeed, are we waiting for?
McCain and the Bush administration will eventually be forced to capitulate or to redefine the mission, yet again, moving us one step closer to their true neocolonial aspirations.
If they "flip flop" on their prior commitment to respect the will of the Iraqi government (it is a sovereign after all, though I'll grant that Bush doesn't know what that word means) then let's just call a spade a spade. They will be usurping the sovereignty of Iraq and we will have ourselves a full fledged occupation.
July 23, 2008 4:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain wants to talk about Iraq all the time. And that's great for Obama. It's like, "I'd like a bit more of your time to further remind you of my failures that you hate so much."
July 24, 2008 5:25 AM | Reply | Permalink