SwiftVets.com

[Guest]

According to a Time/CNN poll conducted May 12-13, more Americans now believe Kerry is better suited to handle the Iraq military situation than Bush:

Kerry: 46%
Bush: 43%


Way to go, Swift Boat Veterans for Bush! Mission Accomplished!

[SOnioins]

And any poll can be made to come out to show anything. It all hinges on who and how you ask the questions.

[sparky]

"And any poll can be made to come out to show anything."

My favorite poll is the one showing that 20% of the public believes it is in the top 1% of income and another 20% believe they will be. PT Barnum would be drooling at today's opportunities.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/05/14/bush.kerry/
(CNN) -- As Americans express growing unease about Iraq, President Bush's job approval rating has taken a hit, according to a poll released Friday by CNN and Time magazine.

That development appears to be helping Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. He wins the support of 51 percent of likely voters, compared to 46 percent for Bush. In February, Bush was ahead of Kerry by two percentage points.

If independent Ralph Nader is among the choices, Kerry gets 49 percent, Bush 44 percent and Nader 6 percent.

Looks like it's not just our allies that are abandoning Bush after all these screwups.

[grbradsk]

Look, whatever you think about Kerry, Bush sets such a low bar for commander in chief that any of us could qualify. "Gross mismanagement" comes to mind.

Becoming ever more conservative myself, I'm flabbergasted by conservative's support of Bush. Please help me on what's to like about Bush?

* Big government spender? DEFICITS *ARE* TAXES sheesh.

* Government in my pants?

* Government in science? – I’m getting older and I don’t want to have to fly to China or England to get stem cell treatments.

* Government in religion? -- Worked for Europe.

* Ashcroft's version of bill of rights?

* Taking away Habeas Corpus perhaps? -- Always thought this was foundational to western democracy.

* Under funding homeland security and not focusing it on key targets?

* Secrecy about government prying into our lives? Yes, we need more snooping … the safeguards of which ought to be the subject of serious and long public debate. “Just trust us” Sorry, I don’t.

Help me out here, what's to like?

[hist/student]

unabashed comprehensive retraction

[sparky]

You're saying that the reason that poll shows Bush so far behind Kerry is because Harris and Associates used lots of felons who can't vote anyway?

Harris polls are highly reputable, Hist/student. They're internationally recognized for the integrity of their data. And besides, other polls are showing a similar drop by Bush after the prison torture debacle.

And Bush's poor showing in the polls bodes ill for a second term. In Gallup surveys, no president since World War II with ratings below 50 per cent at this point in an election year has been returned. (Bush is down to 42%)

In fact, the latest news is that Rumsfeld gave the OK for the prison torture:

Rumsfeld 'gave abuse OK'
By Roy Eccleston
May 17, 2004

EMBATTLED US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld faces renewed calls to resign over the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal amid claims he allowed a secret program using harsh torture techniques to expand into the notorious Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.


Pressure ... fresh calls for Mr Rumsfeld's resignation are ringing in the Defence Secretary's ears / AP
Guantanamo inmate tells of torture


The fresh allegations put new pressure on US President George W. Bush to act against his defence adviser, as the scandal widened with six British soldiers to be charged over the torture and death of an Iraqi in military custody.

The charges against soldiers from the Queen's Lancashire Regiment would be the first levelled at British troops since the war began.

As the scandal continued to dog the Blair and Bush administrations, the Pentagon last night called the report on Mr Rumsfeld - by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh of The New Yorker magazine - outlandish and conspiratorial, and denied he authorised any program that could have produced the abuses documented in the photographs that have shocked the world.

But the abuse scandal is just one of the problems the US now faces in Iraq, ranging from the withdrawal by some allies of troops to the absence of any viable government to invest with power on June 30 when the US insists it will hand over sovereignty.

Underscoring the sense of confusion in US policy was Mr Bush's insistence yesterday that US troops would stay in Iraq after June 30 for the "vital mission" of providing security.

On Friday, Secretary of State Colin Powell had opened the door to an early withdrawal, saying if the new Iraqi government asked the US forces to go, they would leave.

But it is the photographs of US troops abusing Iraqis that has made more Americans doubt Mr Bush's leadership.

A Newsweek poll released at the weekend found public approval for Mr Bush's handling of Iraq at 35 per cent - down from 44 per cent in April. Overall, his job approval is down to 42 per cent, compared with other recent polls that have him in the mid-40s.

Democrat challenger John Kerry has yet to fully capitalise, but is at least even or fractionally ahead in several polls.

But in Gallup surveys, no president since World War II with ratings below 50 per cent at this point in an election year has been returned.

According to The New Yorker, Mr Rumsfeld and a close aide, Undersecretary of Defence for intelligence Stephen Cambone, extended to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq a secret operation that had been hunting al-Qaeda.

Quoting unnamed US intelligence officials, the report said the operation encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq.

"The solution, endorsed by Rumsfeld and carried out by Stephen Cambone, was to get tough with those Iraqis in the army prison system who were suspected of being insurgents," Hersh wrote.

"The commandos were to operate in Iraq as they had in Afghanistan. The male prisoners could be treated roughly, and exposed to sexual humiliation."

A Pentagon statement said the abuses had "no basis in any sanctioned program, training manual, instruction, or order", and said the article was riddled with errors.

It denied Mr Cambone had ever had any responsibility for detainee or interrogation programs and, while it did not deny the existence of the secret program, it said no Defence official approved any program "that could conceivably have been intended to result in such abuses as witnessed in the recent photos and videos".

US commanders in Iraq have suddenly banned the use of a range of "stress and duress" interrogation techniques that human rights lawyers claim breached the Geneva Conventions.

The move came after Mr Rumsfeld flew to Baghdad and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, was forced to admit that the application of some techniques listed for potential use in Iraq could be inhumane.

A list of possible measures, such as sleep disruption for up to 72 hours and the use of dogs to frighten prisoners, had previously been possible with the approval of the top US general in Iraq.

[fortdixlover]

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

Good! Keep those same poll results going right up until election.

Nothing will get Mr. & Mrs. America out to stand up for their President like the specter of another Clinton-esque, highly "nuanced" administration.

The only poll that really counts is the one in November.
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother

[Marine's Wife]

Well said Navy ! I see now where some of these people get their "facts"

The Times, and CNN.! Both "Great Whores of the News"

I knew they'd been spoon fed by some of the Liberal Media,or had their heads up the old butt one.