The Daily Background

Rasmussen, a respected political polling firm issued the following report, this week:

Fifty-seven percent (57%) of American voters now favor either an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq (37%) or a firm deadline for their withdrawal (20%). The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 35% of voters are opposed to both of these options for ending the war.
[…]
The number of Americans favoring immediate withdrawal has increased nine percentage points since November. On the eve of Election 2006, just 28% favored bringing home the troops right away.

Note of course that these are registered voters being polled, not the entire public. Rasmussen, a Republican pollster, has also found that 17% of self-described Republicans want to withdraw from Iraq immediately. More key numbers from the poll released the other day:

Underlying these attitudes is pessimism about the War itself. Just 29% of American voters believe the troop surge launched earlier this year has made things better in Iraq. Twice as many, 61%, believe the surge has either made things worse (43%) or had no impact (18%). A separate survey found that just 33% believe history will judge the U.S. mission in Iraq a success. Fifty percent (50%) believe it will be viewed as a failure.

Even Republicans are not convinced–just 52% of those in the President’s Party believe the surge has made things better. Only 12% of Democrats and 26% of those not affiliated with either major party share that optimistic assessment. Sixty-four percent (64%) of Democrats believe the surge has made things worse, a view shared by 41% of the unaffiliated.

Filed under: Polls, Z-TDB Blog