In Their Own Words: Independents and War
Political independents have continued to support congressional Democrats even as they have pursued increasingly aggressive strategies to remove troops from Iraq.
By a 57 percent to 31 percent margin, independents trust Democrats in Congress to handle the issue of Iraq over President Bush, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News Poll. That follows from the 2006 midterm elections, when independents, motivated by opposition to Bush's management of the Iraq war, helped drive Republicans from power.
Now, Bush and Democrats are clashing over war funding legislation that includes a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq. Bush has pledged to veto the bill. The poll showed that independents, however, are split 49 percent to 49 percent over whether there should be a timetable.
"We're in a really tough spot. We can't get out without causing more problems. We can't stay in without more American deaths," said independent Elizabeth Slomba, 37, a college professor and librarian in York, Maine, who responded to the poll. "Congress can only do so much."
But despite her concern that Congress will overreach in its effort to bring the war to a close, she believes it is doing the right thing in putting pressure on Bush. "I believe they are responding to why they were voted into office, and this is the best thing that Congress can do," Slomba said.
Other independents who approved of the Democratic strategy wanted lawmakers to go further. Brent Benoit, 32, a construction company owner in heavily-conservative East Baton Rouge, La., said, "I feel like I'm a little disappointed in them for not taking action on Iraq as aggressively as they should have done so far. I think that America in general, even in the conservative South here, is pretty unified that Iraq's been a failure."
Walt Leipold, 52, an engineer in New Castle County, Del., predicted that Democrats ultimately would back down from their demand that a timetable be included in war funding legislation. "I suspected they're going to knuckle under to the no-timetable provision the president is demanding," he said.
Should the U.S. set a deadline for withdrawing its forces from Iraq, not?
| Should set a deadline | Should not set a deadline | No opinion | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Adults | 51% | 48% | 1% | |
| Party ID | Democrat | 73 | 26 | 1 |
| Independent | 49 | 49 | 2 | |
| Republican | 23 | 75 | 1 | |
Full question wording available here.
More information about Post polls is available at www.washingtonpost.com/polls.
* Reporting by Zachary Goldfarb
* Polling analysis by Jon Cohen and Jennifer Agiesta
By
Jon Cohen
|
April 18, 2007; 8:30 AM ET
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Posted by: EMack | April 18, 2007 11:38 AM | Report abuse
The story of the Iraq war is: "US incompetence, denial of reality, and right-wing voyeurism results in greatest nation on earth relegated to third world status."
Unfortunately, the congress can only do so much. We the people must demand the impeachment of Bush and Cheney.
Posted by: ifiver | April 18, 2007 11:39 AM | Report abuse
We keep assuming that a pull out will caused the region to collapse into kayos. Thinking out of the box for a minute, what if the solution to this conflict is for the USA to simply leave? That's what we keep hearing and we heard the Irais say this on the news immediately after Sadam was removed from power. If the region becomes stable wouldn't that be a shock. After all the governments of the Middle East know who and were the terrorist train and live, they are the ones letting them use their land and facilities. They are the ones feeding the weapons and resources to them. Let's think creatively instead of linearly on this one track mindset. Maybe the President and his believers could be wrong.
Posted by: Bill R. | April 18, 2007 11:39 AM | Report abuse
Bush is good at raising campaign money. Let him go raise money from his contributors to pay for his war in Iraq. The real war is in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Posted by: Rodney Lamprey, jr. | April 18, 2007 11:40 AM | Report abuse
Repeat Vietnam? The only similarity is in the political arrogance, and refusal to admit that we shouldn't be there. Bush only wants to sacrifice more lives to delay the pull out until after he is out of office. That is the ultimate coward.
Posted by: Rodney Lamprey, jr. | April 18, 2007 11:49 AM | Report abuse
Political independents have continued to support congressional Democrats even as they have pursued increasingly aggressive strategies to remove troops from Iraq.
really then why is the graphic 49-49 about setting a deadline
oh I guess you are refering to this
By a 57 percent to 31 percent margin, independents trust Democrats in Congress to handle the issue of Iraq over President Bush, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News Poll.
So in summary the truth is independents turst democrats to handle Iraq BUT they are evenly split about setting a withdraw date.
So, this entry was misleading and people are stupid for supporting a position they don't actually believe.
The one good takeaway from this "journalisim" is that the country is split 50-50 about setting a date for withdraw with 75% of dems for and 75% of repubs against
Posted by: you call this journalisim?? | April 18, 2007 2:20 PM | Report abuse
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independents my rear end! Most self proclaimed independents are moderates who don't have a good understanding of the issues and consequently lean liberal or political cynics who don't believe there is a dimes worth of difference between the two parties and believe thier decisions can be made in a vacume and end up leaning liberal, but I repeat myself.
Shout out to all of those who are trying to repeat the Vietnam model. The US pulls out all support, and over a million people are massacred. Lets all sign up for that one! Only this time, they won't stay in thier own country. Be sure you stop any survelliance of overseas phone calls to know terrorists, they might just be ordering a new cell phone or other non-US manufactured item. Do any of these people understand the phrase "Self fullfilling prophecy"? God bless the Iraqi people and the U.S. military.