Iraq: Teeing up Bush's speech
Posted: Thursday, September 13, 2007 9:16 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
White House, Congress, Security
Also in the new NBC/WSJ poll, 33% says the surge is helping the situation in Iraq, 15% say it’s hurting the situation, and 48% say it’s not making a difference either way. Moreover, only 35% think that removing Saddam Hussein from power was worth the US casualties and cost of the war. Bush’s overall approval rating stands at 33%, a two-point increase from July.
The Wall Street Journal, NBC’s polling partner, writes that the new survey “shows an uptick in support for the president’s handling of the war. However modest, the gains come as welcome news for the White House as it seeks to hold enough Republican Congressional support to sustain Mr. Bush’s Iraq policy through the end of his term. Mr. Bush has been buffeted by high-profile Republican dissent from such party stalwarts as Sens. Richard Lugar of Indiana and Pete Domenici of New Mexico. But majority Democrats haven’t yet come close to amassing the two thirds votes needed in the House and Senate to override a presidential veto of a measure that would force an accelerated withdrawal beyond the gradual drawdown of the 30,000 ‘surge’ troops that Mr. Bush is expected to announce tonight.”
Here is MSNBC.com’s take on the poll.
The New York Times writes that Bush’s “critics say he is trying to have it both ways. He is, they say, taking credit for a drawdown that has been envisioned since he first announced the current buildup on Jan. 10 — a withdrawal that had to be carried out unless he was willing to take the politically unpalatable step of extending soldiers’ tours further.”
Meanwhile, the Washington Post front-pages, “Democratic leaders in Congress have decided to shift course and pursue modest bipartisan measures to alter U.S. military strategy in Iraq, hoping to use incremental changes instead of aggressive legislation to break the grip Republicans have held over the direction of war policy.”
“Standing against them will be President Bush, who intends to use a prime-time address tonight to try to ease concerns that his Iraq strategy will lead to an open-ended military commitment. Both efforts share a single target: a handful of Republican moderates in the Senate whose votes the Democrats need to overcome the threat of a GOP filibuster. Should enough Republican moderates sign on to a compromise measure, Democrats could finally pass legislation aimed at changing direction of the war.”
