Tweet
A plurality of Americans, 46 percent, believe President Obama’s current plan to remove combat troops from Afghanistan is about right, while only 29 percent think the drawn down should be quicker, according to Pew polling. Interestingly though self-identified Democrats are the political group that is least supportive of a faster withdraw.
A third of both Republicans and Independents think Obama’s Afghan draw down is not quick enough, while just one fifth of all Democrats feel that way. There is little desire among Democrats for a longer mission but for the most the party members are rally around their partisan leader’s position.
A similar partisan phenomena can be observed in the polling on Libya. President Obama has indicated how much war he wants and for the most part regular Democrats appetite for more war has increased to match Obama’s.
It is a powerful reminder of how signals from partisan leaders can go a long way to shape the views of their base on some issues. The President isn’t some hapless slave to popular opinion. His bully pulpit actually is powerful and can cause people to change their minds.
21 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About FDL Action
I’m beginning to think party Democrats are as crazy as the Republicans!
Here we go again. I guess Democrat are as happy about losing their jobs too:
White House Announces Pact to Extend Trade Deals
Makes the old saw that “Obama wants to do something but he needs us to make him” a sad joke.
Obama uses the bully pulpit to not do what the left wants – but like this is news? Indeed when he flat out lied to us about the public option and a dozen other campaign promises, the only news was how he did not care – “they have no place else to go”.
Not surprising to me.
It would seem that if the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that most Americans have completely internalized the dominant paradigms that embody what passes for political discourse, the almost absolute fear of being seen as soft-on-defense, for instance.
‘Serious’ people understand that “It’s a dangerous world” …
…and he must be doing the right thing, because republicans oppose him.
A lot of republicans probably believe that most criticism of Bush was obviously unfair because of an irrational, but bone-deep belief that he was after-all a “compassionate conservative”.
Yeah, I would read the Dem support view as “We’re going to protect the President, no matter what!”
Very very sad.
Yeah these dudes are WORST than any Republicans! And the Republicans are the party of PEACE! So let’s all vote Michele-Sarah – THAT’s our ticket dudes!
-(and we will get good hair too!)
and them Democrats are bloody socialsts and communist too – VOTE American – America!!!
(and lets sing the National Anthem togetha!!)
Who cares. We don’t live in a Democracy anymore. Deal with it.
that’s why we should vote for Michele – She will bring back them ‘democracy’!
The skies are blue, there are fish in the lake, the lilacs and dogwoods bloomed, fascism in the U.S. is working out very well for the public.
Zero difference between any of these candidates.
Some of them tell you to your face they’ll screw you, others, like Obama, prefer to stick the knife in your back.
“His bully pulpit actually is powerful and can cause people to change their minds.; yes, but he won’t/doesn’t use it.
It would be interesting to tell people people what is involved in the drawdown, and more importantly, how many troops it leaves, and ask this question again. The results here do not tell us whether people are actually supportive of the president’s plan or whether they wrongly imagine that the plan involves a more significant drawdown than it does.
In addition, if other Democrats were to step up their criticisms on this issue, we might see these numbers move pretty quickly.
That IS the democratic ticket of 2024. ;-)
The republicans will find even worse candidates by then (people like Palin will seem like left-wing radicals by 2024, as things shift ever further to the right), so the loyal democrats will tell us to vote for the lesser of evils.
There is no candidate that a loyal democrat will not fully support, provided that an even worse republican can be found.
WTF are you talking about. Them Democrats are MUCH MUCH worst -(and have terrible hair too!!)
Yeah! So WHY voting for the ‘fake’ let’s get REAL Patrits in there –
‘Michele- Palin’ 2013!!
(or when is this election?)
and do you know my favorite joke a dude from Minessota and Texas meets – says the man fom Missota: Do you have elections? – Says the dude from Texas: Yes every morning! – And isn’t that funny -(the last Republican I talked to loved it!)
This is what brainwashing does to political party worshipers.
Both the Democrats and Republicans are corrupt to the core… and their brainwashed followers are a menace to the country and the planet.
We need an Anti- Stockholm Syndrome movement. Look at the carnage of the last 2+ years, Dems were handed a massive majority and public support and flushed all of it. Obama is a Trojan Horse in the truest sense of the word. The betrayal is mind boggling.
Political partisans, whether Democratic or Republican, are stupid.
Wrong, he uses it to mislead the gullible and bring the rest of us to despair. He is an extremely effective communicator of such messaging.
and unfortunately, it seems there are still a lot of gullible Democrats out there.
I got liberal friends that are liberal on ever issue, one girl had a gay son that killed himself when he was 21 years old, she is a volunteer for gay pride, the other one i met on line, she is a member over at daily kos [which might explain alot of things]. Anyway , damn near lost both friendship , because I had the audacity to speak truth about Obama….