There is a serious movement to wear something red on Fridays in support of our troops.

My faith in the common sense of Americans is slowly being restored.

Now lets here tubby's take on this. He who loves the polls so much.

Of course it will be ignored (!).
Unless it is noted in a story, the lede of which is how out of touch the troops have become with the American public:
Why do they still think this is a mission worth fighting, when most of America does not want them there? How unfortunate that the troops, being too close to the conflict, can't see the losing forest through the winning trees.

etc., etc., etc.

OT: Marines to contribute troops to SoCom

I am so amazed by the MSM. They usually report on the findings of 'RT Polls' instantly - as long as they are anti-Bush. I mean they're at least as well known Zogby, Gallup, Harris or the polls by news organizations like ABC's or CNN's! Seriously, shouldn't you tell us who the poller is before you do all the outraged headline stuff?

bbustard's criticism is somewhat well-founded, in that we should always check the poll sources and methodology. But these gentlemen have been commissioned to do polls by news agencies in the past, and their work has been widely disseminated. Riehle, for instance, ran the US polling division of IPSOS, which has a long history of polling for AP (which are usually reported 'instantly'). Tarrance has been polling for nearly 30 years, and has some of the best-respected and most accurate election-day projections around.

Perhaps the RT Strategies group is not as well-known or connected as their previous incarnations, but I doubt it. Not reporting results of this signficance and wide interest are not likely to be due to the obscurity of the authors.

last line should read 'is,' nor 'are.'

Are you really surprised by the MSM selective use of information? Neither am I. The fun part about the lies of the liberals is when they are proven so disastrously wrong. Take Kerry's statement that this was the worst economy since the great depression.It's just been reported that holiday sales were up 28% year over year. Want to bet that the press will ignor this strong economic news?

Goldstein has a post up on this, and one of his commenters provided this link to the actual poll.

Thanks to geoff, we can see that the Washingtoni Post is hosting the poll PDF.

And thanks to geoff and WaPo, anyone can read the first questions:

Thinking about the war in Iraq, when Democratic Senators criticize the President’s policy on the war in Iraq, do you believe it HELPS the morale of our troops in Iraq or HURTS the morale of our troops in Iraq?

When Democrats criticize the President’s policy in Iraq, do you believe they are
(ROTATE)

Is that the neutral way to ask the question? Why insert the partisan bit? Why not ask, when people criticize...

After all, there ARE republicans criticizing the President's war effort!

The poll appears to be part "push-poll", by presenting the notion that criticism is partisan, and part just plain ol' bias to get a specific result.

But I'd be happy to hear from someone who evaluates polls.

Would be interesting if some other questions had been asked:

When the President attacks those who are asking about the WH use of intel... how does that affect morale?

When the administration only appears to prosecute low-level military people in conjunction with abuse of prisoners ... how does that affect troop morale?

When the administration proposes cutting funding for veterans' benefits, how does that affect troop morale?

When the administration presents a fabricated case to the UN and to the US public to justify the invasion of Iraq, ... how does that affect troop morale?

Forgot to mention the obvious:

Why didn't they ask the TROOPS what affects their morale?!? Isn't that the only measure that matters?

If you care about the troops, that is.

Why insert the partisan bit?

I'd argue that the recent Murtha-push was associated very strongly with the Democrats, so the clarification was probably moot, but I would have been happier with a neutral 'Senators.' But it is still interesting that 55% of *Democrats* thought the criticisms hurt the morale of the troops - you'd think they'd be immune to the mind-bending effect of the word 'Democrat.'

In any case, this is not a classic 'push' poll.

Why didn't they ask the TROOPS what affects their morale?!?/i>

Probably because that wasn't the poll they were commissioned to do. Because whoever commissioned the poll was interested in how the war criticisms were playing with the public, not the troops.

Duh.

What's really hard to do is to reconcile this poll with the many others showing that a majority of Americans believe that the president misled them about the war. If you believe that, but you believe that criticism (even on those grounds) damages troop morale, then I guess you believe that any admin lie to war is beyond criticism?!?

Meanwhile, with evidence dripping about how the administration knew the junkiness of their claims about ties to Al Qaeda, Saddam's nuclear capabilities, etc., the lies are getting harder to deny.

Probably because that wasn't the poll they were commissioned to do. Because whoever commissioned the poll was interested in how the war criticisms were playing with the public, not the troops.

Well there you go. I was showing my misplaced priorities again. It's all about the public perception, not the reality of what affects troop morale.

You're right, of course, geoff, about the point of the poll. In the little I've seen about the poll, there seems to be an awful lot of folks reading this as vindication of their own beliefs about what affects troop morale, when the poll isn't designed to reveal what affects troop morale.

Come to think of it, I don't remember EVER seeing a poll on troops, on what affects their morale. I'm sure the military has done such studies.

The military are a bunch of stupid baby killers!

I support the troops!

Crazy is as crazy does tubino. Its best if you take your 57%, bronze it, and then put it under your pillow at night.

70% say that one political party is saying we are losing the war just to make political gains. That 70% represents a fluidity in your 57%, they might just be willing to change their opinion when confronted with DNC statements supporting the war from 1998-2003. Maybe their informed opinion will change from your magical 57%

70%

70%

70%

nah nah, no no

Come to think of it, I don't remember EVER seeing a poll on troops, on what affects their morale. I'm sure the military has done such studies.

Well, if you read the boots-on-the-ground weblogs, you'd find their #1 complaint is about the media and the resultant threat of inconstancy back home.

Tubi,

They did have a poll that showed military personnel to have the highest confidence of all for our success in Iraq, something like 60% plus.

and yeah, I'm sure defeatism at home doesn't affect the troops' morale...doh!

tubino: If the troops are so non partisan, why do the Democrats always try to exclude the military vote (both in 2000 and 2004)? It's because everyone knows the Democrats are antimilitary extremists (e.g. trying to portray the soldiers as gestapo torturers, or in another instance,claiming that soldiers deliberately targeted reporters and killled them.) Do you really think you Democrats can lie your way through, slandering the troops incessantly and the soldiers won't notice? More fool you.

Hollywood is full of traitor and CINDY SHEEHAN is a treasonous hag