JD Johannes: Support For War Based Largely Upon Military's Heightened Q Rating

Q rating is, I'm pretty sure, an entertainment industry measure of a star's likability and bankability.

JD Johannes notes that the surging support for the surge seems based mostly on increased positive press for the struggling would-be star.

I suppose this is sort of obvious and not surprising. Of course relentless media drum-beating for withdrawal and defeat has an effect. And of course a less bombastic drum-beat will tend to have the opposite effect.

Still, it's sort of dispiriting to see public desire for victory swinging so much on what Johannes characterizes -- not unfairly -- as ratings points of a sort.

The media wasn't lying, nor the public wrong, when they thought the war was going badly. It was going badly. (Though probably not as badly as the media claimed or the public believed, but badly nonetheless.)

But should that have such an impact upon the public's estimation of how important a victory in Iraq is? Some impact, sure, but a pronounced impact? Do the American people really say "This is too hard, so let's go home"?

Unfortunately, we do. Which was Osama bin Ladin's operating theory (as well as Saddam Hussein's) all along.

posted by Ace at 02:13 PM

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