Responses to this message:
From the left of center Democrat newspaper The New York Times:
March 29, 2007
News Analysis
"Democrats Are Building on Unity Over Iraq Pullout"
By ROBIN TONER
WASHINGTON, March 28 — No one has seemed more surprised by the Democrats’ success in pushing an exit strategy for Iraq than the Democrats.
Their aggressiveness and unity on a major foreign-policy challenge to the president is a striking change for a party that has, on many occasions over many years, seemed to be on the defensive on national security issues.
Critics on the party’s left complained that Democratic leaders had grown risk-averse, too consumed with defending against old charges from the 60s and 70s, too reluctant to stand up against the president.
But the Democratic votes over the past five days, calling for the withdrawal of most American combat troops from Iraq next year despite repeated threats of a presidential veto, show how much that image has shifted.
To a large extent, the party is responding to political circumstances that would embolden even the most cautious lawmaker. President Bush’s political standing has plummeted as the war has dragged on. Confidence in the Republican Party’s leadership on national security has also fallen. By October, the two parties were even when a New York Times/CBS News poll asked which would do a better job on terrorism; in the fall of 2002, Republicans had a 42-point advantage.
More to the point: “The public really wants something done about Iraq,” said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center. A Pew poll released this week found that 59 percent of Americans supported a deadline for combat troops to be withdrawn in 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/2468gx
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/washington/29assess.html?hp
{;-) Dan in Miami
PS: Don't you just love politics in the good old USA? Never mind what would be best for US security. Just read the polls and vote accordingly.
Responses to this message:
Post a response to this discussion thread
And check this out: The Top Posters' Page