Poll: Bush Is A Loser

This stuff really burns me up. A USA TODAY/CNN Gallup poll (full poll results here), reported in USA Today yesterday, shows dwindling support for President Bush and the war in Iraq.

I can hardly keep my fingers on the keyboard, because there's so much to criticize about this poll.

The poll questioned 1004 people. On questions 12 and 13, the pollsters separated the Republicans (and Republican-leaning people) from the Democrats (and Democrat-leaning people). Interesting that the count of Republicans was 443 and the Democrat count was 466 (909 total, so some of the 1004 must be independent or undecided). This raises the question of whether Democrats were over-represented in this poll, thus skewing the results away from President Bush and his policies. The last reports (which I can't find a link to right at the moment) that I remember showed slightly more Republicans in the country than Democrats.

An important question that's missing from the poll is:

What is your primary source of news?

• Large metropolitan newspapers and/or their websites
• Local newspapers and/or their websites
• Broadcast network news shows and/or their websites
• Cable network news shows and/or their websites
• Independent internet news sources
• Talk radio
• Blogs
• Other

My guess is that the majority of the people polled get their news from the mainstream media, where any bad news from Iraq is reported and all the good news is ignored (and yes, there is good news). With nothing but bad news coming across MSM news outlets, is it any surprise that people are wondering if going to Iraq was a good idea?

Here are the poll questions on Iraq:

6. In view of the developments since we first sent our troops to Iraq, do you think the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq, or not?

7. All in all, do you think it was worth going to war in Iraq, or not?

By saying "In view of the developments..." the pollsters encourage the respondents to think back over the latest news, which would be the MSM reports of US military deaths.

And by asking the "mistake" question first, they put the respondents into a negative mindset before presenting them with the question, "Was it worth it?"

This poll is being widely reported, even on Fox News, and I haven't heard any of the reports question the validity of the poll. The real losers from this poll are the people who accept it as valid--and the pollsters themselves, who slanted their poll to fit their own agenda.

Update:

Here is a story from Iraq with good news (from Aug 8). Do you think it's being reported in the New York Times? Ummm... No. Here's what the Times is reporting (Aug 9). It's a story on today's attacks in Iraq that left 20 dead, including 1 US soldier, with unrelated discussion of the difficulty Iraq is having hammering out a constitution. Down at the bottom, the article has related stories, none of which include the good news of yesterday's discovery and destruction of a car bomb factory in Haqlaniyah in the Anbar province.

If the New York Times was where you got your news, what do you think your answers would be to poll questions about Iraq?