I feel so happy about these numbers that I’m just spreading all over the blogosphere. I first posted them over at my blog, culturekitchen; but now, you can officially call me the poll-fairy, bringing good cheer to the children of the blogoshphere.
So here’s the numbers you’ve been waiting for all week, heck, all frigging year!
President Bush’s Rating on Handling of Iraq Continues to Erode [ Breakdown of numbers at PR Newswire. General news report at Bloomberg ] :
ROCHESTER, N.Y., July 21 PRNewswire — According to the latest Harris Poll, the rating of President Bush’s handling of Iraq continues to decline. Almost two-thirds (64%) of U.S. adults now rate the president negatively. On almost all measures in this survey, the number of adults expressing negative views on Iraq has increased. These are the results of a new Harris Poll of 2,339 U.S. adults surveyed online by Harris Interactive(R) between July 12 and 18, 2005. The main findings in this poll are:
- President Bush’s 64 percent negative to 34 percent positive rating on the handling of Iraq is an increase in that negative rating from 61 to 37 percent in May.
- By 59 to 23 percent, U.S. adults are not confident that U.S. policies in Iraq will be successful. This represents continued erosion in confidence from May when a 54 to 26 percent majority said that they were not confident.
- The percentage of adults who say that taking military action against Iraq was the right thing to do has remained steady (38% now vs. 39% in May). The percentage who thinks that this was the wrong thing to do has also remained steady (49 percent now vs. 48 percent in May).
- While 44 percent of adults think the situation for U.S. troops in Iraq is getting worse, only 17 percent think things are getting better. A third (35%) feels that things haven’t changed, similar to the percentage who felt this way in May (34%).
Recently, there has been speculation that perhaps the U.S. public has not been paying attention to the situation in Iraq. This latest survey suggests otherwise. More than eight in 10 (85%) U.S. adults say that they are paying at least a fair amount of attention to the situation in Iraq (29% say they pay a “great deal” of attention and 56% say they pay a “fair amount”). Fully more than a third (36%) thinks Iraq is moving in the wrong direction now, and a similar 37 percent thinks things are moving in the right direction-a less sanguine perspective than two months earlier. In May, though a similar percentage thought that things were moving in the right direction (39%), a much smaller percentage (29%) thought things were moving in the wrong direction. In these latest results, a significant number (28%) still say they are not sure (31% in May).
Didn’t just make your heart go atwiter? Mine sure did; and it gets better. When I went looking for the Harris Poll but could not find it, I found these two polls. First up, teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18 say, “Hell no we won’t go”, to the BushCo war :
Harris Interactive | News Room – One-Quarter of U.S. Teens Support the War in Iraq
The war in Iraq seems to have had a clear impact on recruitment for the U.S. military. In April 2003, 28 percent of teens said they would be likely to volunteer to fight in the war in Iraq if they were old enough, a percentage which has fallen to 11 percent now. The surveys also show that a large majority of teens continue to support the all-volunteer system for the armed services (87% now and in 2003)
What? You wanted to know where do US citizens stand on the SCOTUS nominations and confirmation? Well, I’m glad you asked! Not only do 43% of Americans think a moderate should be confirmed (over 23% who called for a conserevative and 15% for a liberal) but 45% believe that if the Senate has reason to, they should filibuster
Finally, another spotlight has been on the role of the Senate in the nomination process, specifically the role of the filibuster. When adults were asked what it means to them when the U.S. Constitution says that the U.S. Senate should provide advice and consent for nominations to the Supreme Court, over four in 10 (45%) believe it means that the Senate should take a detailed look at a nominee’s past decisions and writings and be able to filibuster the nominee if they so desire. One-third (36%) believes the Senate should debate the merits of the nominee but allow the president great latitude in his appointments. Almost one in five (19%) are not sure.
Not surprisingly, Republicans and Democrats have diverse views of the Senate’s role. Two-thirds of Republicans (65%) believe the Senate should debate the merits of the nominee but the president should be allowed great latitude in his appointments. A similar percentage of Democrats (65%) believe the Senate should take a detailed look at the nominee’s past decisions and writings but be able to filibuster the nominee if they so desire. Independents are a bit more split as 49 percent believe the Senate should be able to filibuster and 37 percent believe the president should have great latitude.
So Mr. President, about that mandate …