Latest AP-Ipsos Poll: Just 27 percent of Americans approve of Bush's handling of Iraq

Americans see no easy exit from Iraq: Just 9 percent expect the war to end in clear-cut victory, compared with 87 percent who expect some sort of compromise settlement, according to the latest AP-Ipsos poll.

The numbers evoke parallels to public opinion about the war in Vietnam four decades ago. In December 1965, when the American side of the war still had eight years to run, a Gallup survey found just 7 percent believed it would end in victory.

Dissatisfaction with President Bush's handling of Iraq has climbed to an all-time high of 71 percent, according to the AP-Ipsos survey, which was taken as a bipartisan commission was releasing its recommendations this week for a new course. Just 27 percent of Americans approved of Bush's handling of Iraq, down from his previous low of 31 percent in November.

Pessimism about Iraq is mounting, according to the poll. Some 63 percent of Americans said they don't expect a stable, democratic government to be established, up from 54 percent who felt that way in June... http://tinyurl.com/ygb87d [Open in new window]

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Who are the people who still approve of Bush & think 'we'll win' (whatever that means) in Iraq?

Some are bloviating on TV & radio, lobbying for the military-industrial-big oil-etc-complex but they get screened out in polls.

I overhear them out & about. "Nuke 'em all" they say. Whoever 'em is. Some of the media bloviators say this too, sometimes in code. But these aren't their thoughts, these are their feelings (whatever that means.) Besides these people don't take polls, they're out snipeing on freeways or in hate churches or...who knows, beating up prostitutes, cockfights, strip clubs, night riding...?

Some are tuned in to the media bloviators, listening & talking back to their sets. That's one good social function of Rush & Co. It keeps the morons indoors.

I remember during the lead up to the invasion of Iraq millions of people took to the streets to protest, here in the US & around the world. TV showed the dozens who showed up to 'support our troops & the president.' It was a very skewed picture the media showed us.

There's a famous passage from a Ron Suskind book (I don't feel like looking it up right now) where a highly placed White House official (suspected to be Karl Rove) tells Mr. Suskind that 'we're an empire now, we make our own reality.'

No. No thanks. I'll stick to that other kind of reality, you know, the real kind. For me that's a choice. It's not for the widows, widowers & orphans of the Iraq fiasco.

But what about that twenty-something percent who still support the president & think 'we'll win'; who ARE these people?

I just don't know...

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