American Public: Democrats Playing Politics With the War

The Washington Post has an interesting story today on public opinion on Troop Morale. (Hat Tip to Nick Danger at Red State.)

Seventy percent of people surveyed said that criticism of the war by Democratic senators hurts troop morale — with 44 percent saying morale is hurt “a lot,” according to a poll taken by RT Strategies. Even self-identified Democrats agree: 55 percent believe criticism hurts morale, while 21 percent say it helps morale…

Their poll also indicates many Americans are skeptical of Democratic complaints about the war. Just three of 10 adults accept that Democrats are leveling criticism because they believe this will help U.S. efforts in Iraq. A majority believes the motive is really to “gain a partisan political advantage.”

This is bad news for the Democrats and shows why they’re not going to clean up with these elections. Yes, the war is unpopular right now. People don’t like to hear reports of soldiers dying. Yet, the poll only shows 16% favor immediate pull out of troops. Americans understand we’ve got to go through this and the feeling here on the party of the American people is that the Democrats are playing politcs with the lives of our soldiers. That’s why the Pew Research Center has shown approval of Democratic Party leadership at 32%. If people think you’re sitting around and playing politics with something like this, they’re not going to like you, trust you, or respect you.

What Democrats have not learned and I doubt if they ever will is that its not enough to trash the ideas of others, you need to have your own positive agenda for the country. Until they realize that, Bush’s approval can be low, but its still not going to do them any good.

Others Blogging on This:
The Kellino Zone
The Grape’s Vine

Iraq War, Morale