CBS News Poll On Eavesdropping
A new poll shows 53% of Americans support the president’s eavesdropping program, and 61% believe he is using it to fight terrorism, as opposed to 29% who say he started to program to expand presidential power:
Roberts: “On the NSA spying program, President Bush went into today’s press conference with a boost. A new CBS News/New York Times poll found 61 percent of Americans believe the eavesdropping is meant to fight terror [compared to 29 percent who said “expand presidential power”] and the majority support that [53 percent back Bush authorizing wiretaps]. The President insisted again today he’s on solid legal ground and was skeptical about increasing talk in Congress to write new laws covering the program.”
President Bush, at his morning press conference: “If the attempt to write law makes this program, is likely to expose the nature of the program, I’ll resist it. Why tell the enemy what we’re doing? If the program is necessary to protect us from the enemy.”
Roberts: “Even if Congress were to write new laws, the larger question is, would President Bush feel obligated to conduct the eavesdropping only under those rules? From a legal standpoint not likely. But the Congress gives him everything he needs, political pressures may dictate that he has to. Bob?”
Schieffer: “You know John, it looks to me as if the President has decided to make this a political issue to show that he is strong in the fight against terrorism and perhaps the Democrats are weak. And I must say, looking at that poll, he may be succeeding.”
Roberts: “A political issue and a national security issue which history would show the President does very well on. You take a look at that poll, the majority of Americans think if it’s directed at terrorism it’s the right thing to do, Bob.”
UPDATE 9:05 a.m.: How does the NY Times report the results? ‘Mixed’ support – well, yeah, a majority is mixed, I suppose…
Fly By 01/27/06
Lots and lots happening – and no time to blog!
Well, let’s just have a quick Fly By of great posts from others with a little more time on their hands. Beginning with my current obsession – the NSA-FISA dust up – there is a lot of information o…
[...] Mark Coffey brings us the details on the latest CBS News Poll (a left leaning poll if there ever was one): A new poll shows 53% of Americans support the president’s eavesdropping program, and 61% believe he is using it to fight terrorism, as opposed to 29% who say he started to program to expand presidential power [...]
It’s mixed because “more than half of Americans approve of the White House’s domestic eavesdropping program to fight terrorism, but nearly two-thirds worry that Americans’ civil liberties could be threatened by U.S. antiterrorism programs, according to a New York Times/CBS News Poll.” Sounds like a split verdict to me.
Live by the polls, die by the polls: CNN reported a few days ago that 55% of Americans polled thought that the Bush administration was a “failure.” The fact that a majority of Americans believe something doesn’t make it true (although, in the latter instance, I think it’s pretty evident that they got it right…)
Pretty evident is in the eye of the beholder…
George W. Bush is a bold man, and history will judge…Iraq may end in disaster, or it may end in triumph, or it may muddle through…but much of his legacy will depend on the ultimate outcome of that venture…
Poor Pinchy, now he’s getting more heat from the previously – fawning crowds at Davos. No place to run, apparently.
If you made a pie chart of the things George Bush will be judged by, Iraq would definitely be the biggest slice – but I think most of the pie would be everything else: Iran, North Korea, the economy, the deficit, the environment, the war on terror, the quality of his judicial nominations, health care, education, immigration, etc…
It’s my opinion that George Bush is the worst President in recent memory, and among the worst we have ever had. I think his father and Reagan were far better Presidents. Possibly even Nixon. Needless to say, I don’t expect much agreement here. However, even if Iraq turns into a sparkling example of Jeffersonian democracy, I think that the weakness of rest of his record will not enable him to escape the verdict of history.
However, as Chiang Kai Shek said notably in 1950 about the French Revolution: it’s too early to tell…
peter, re: not much agreement…certainly not from me…but as you said, no surprise…I rank him the second best president of my lifetime, behind Reagan…but different strokes for different folks…
Bush is worse than Carter? My word, you have literally jumped the shark on this post.
And I’m guessing that you thought the exact same things about Reagan during his tenure as you do for Bush – Reagan was accused of worse things during his two terms, but now?…
Jimmy Carter was a far better President than George Bush.
I did not vote for Reagan, but I found him a very difficult person not to like. I think there is much to be said for his Presidency. I don’t agree with his policies, but I think he brought qualities of leadership to Washington which are admirable. I don’t think he will go down in history as one of the greats, but neither will he be in the same class as Hoover, Nixon, or Bush II.
peter, you and I know each other’s political preferences pretty well by now, but you would have a very hard time convincing any historian, Republican or Democrat, that Jimmy Carter’s presidency was anything but an unmitigated disaster…
The question isn’t whether or not it was an unmitigated disaster — rather, it’s whether it was better than Bush’s —
I think Carter was mediocre but not awful. Given the issues he had to deal with — he inherited an inflation rate in the teens from Ford, Volcker choked the economy with interest rates that went to the high teens, a hostile Soviet Union, and an oil embargo — I think things turned out reasonably OK.
Moreover, I think that Carter had a much more difficult period for his Presidency than Bush. Bush inherited an economy which was humming, a budget surplus, relative world peace, and a Cold War which ended fifteen years earlier. The biggest problem Bush faced, of course, is 9/11, and of course we disagree on his performance there (although the grades you gave him earlier of an A- on offense and a C on defense are passing grades, but imply that others would have done better).
I give Jimmy Carter a lot of credit for telling the American people things they do not want to hear, which I think is a sign of true leadership. To use one example, we have had an oil problem for decades. Jimmy Carter was roasted for wearing a cardigan sweater and telling Americans to turn down their thermostats. Unpopular, but true. A far cry from the current administration, which not only is afraid to tell Americans that, regrettably, there is a correlation between driving a Ford Explorer and how much oil we have to import from unsavory regimes — but also subsidized the purchase of SUV’s and trucks by providing a tax break to businesses who purchased them –
I think that we have become a weak and flabby nation which has lost many of the values which made America great. Part of leadership is trying to restore these values, of which sacrifice for the common good is chief among them. I think Carter deserves a lot of credit for an earnest effort to move the country in the right direction.
“I give Jimmy Carter a lot of credit for telling the American people things they do not want to hear, which I think is a sign of true leadership.”
Jimmah told people what HE wanted them to hear, which was that his incredible weakness and ineptness of leadership was somehow the American public’s fault, and not his own administration’s.
Recently – released archives from the KGB and Soviet Politboro have concluded that once Brehznev took the measure of Carter, they immediately decided that going into Afghanistan would not be opposed by NATO, and that any incursions across the world (Angola, Africa, etc.) would similarly not be opposed after the fecklessness shown by Carter during their summits.
Detente’ was a total joke to the Soviets under the Peanut Man – Carter was rolled by everyone during his Presidency, and his current hilarious miscalculations – validating corrupt and invalid elections in kleptocracies across the world have reminded so many of why he was the worst President to lead our country in the last 50 years, hands down.
And yes, you’re just about alone in your “Great Pumpkin” – like beliefs on this score.
Well, better than getting rolled by Ahmad Chalabi …
Once again, statements with no cites or evidence to back it up. Please go to The Daily Kos or Democratic Underground for your further ministrations on this subject.
The administration was fooled by Chalabi and others into believing that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. We invaded Iraq to find these weapons, but they did not exist. We built this guy up as an Iraqi leader, yet he didn’t get a single vote in the election. Why do I need to get a cite from the Internet to back this up? The thing speaks for itself.
peter, did Chalabi also fool the Clinton Admnistration? The French? Russians? British? UN? Etc., etc….
Chalabi may very well be unreliable (and you’re right, the election certainly proved he’s unpopular with the Iraqi public), but it was the consensus, worldwide, prior to the invasion that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction…
The pre-war debate was not over whether such weapons existed, but whether they constituted grounds for a preemptive war…
But this is rather far afield, and I’m not trying to gang up on you…it’s good that Carter still has some fans…after all, a lot of people never gave up on the White Sox, either, and it paid off for them…