Obama Leads Republicans By Over 20 Points — On Terrorism!
Does anyone else find this number from the internals of the new Washington Post/ABC News poll just stunning?
Who do you trust to do a better job handling the threat of terrorism — (Obama) or the (Republicans in Congress)?
Obama 55%
Republicans in Congress 34%
A year ago, when the conventional wisdom held during the campaign that terrorism was a weak point for Obama, would you have predicted that he would come to hold a 21-point lead over the GOP on the issue?
Some liberals argue, rightly, that there’s less daylight between Obama and Republicans on terrorism than meets the eye, particularly involving questions of executive power. That said, there are some very clear differences between the two parties — on the use of torture and on whether to keep Guantanamo open, to name two.
What’s more, Republicans, led by Dick Cheney, have been attacking Obama for weeks over those differences. Yesterday Chris Cillizza argued that Obama wants a fight with Cheney over national security because Obama is a far more popular personality than the former Veep. That’s true, of course. But the above numbers suggest people may simply think Obama is right on the substance, too.
It’s pretty clear that Republicans aren’t being accorded a heck of a lot of credibility on what was once one of their core issues. And Cheney’s role as lead spokesperson for the GOP position on that issue isn’t doing the party much good, either.
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Update: I’d initially said the difference was 19 points; a commenter rightly notes that it’s actually 21. I’ve edited the above to fix…
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Maybe this is why the Cheney’s have disappeared from their almost daily appearances. Someone has told them to shut the heck up and go fly fishing or something.
And regarding this Obama is the same garbage. This is just Republicans trying to make Obama look like Bush. Nothing more, nothing less. If anyone doesn’t remember, it was Obama that called for a time line for troop removal. McCain, if you remember called it giving the terrorists a date for surrender. Shortly after the Iraqi pres said he supported Obama’s time line, Bush came out with a similar time line. Obama was also ahead of the game calling for more troops to be deployed to Afghanistan. And guess what, once again, Bush followed suit and called for more troops in Afghanistan.
Obama is president, whereas the Republicans have little ability to set policy on terrorism. Even after a fiasco like 9/11, Americans were willing to give the sitting president their support and express confidence in him.
Btw, Chris Cillizza’s post goes right off the tracks. His argument is that generally Obama wants/needs (which is it?) to turn policy debates into melodramatic confrontations with unpopular Republicans because Obama’s policies are not especially popular with the public. His case in point? Health care. Really brilliant, considering that Obama’s public option is supported by about 3/4 of the public. How does that constitute “shaky ground” for Obama?
I think people are beginning to figure out that if you antagonize someone, then they will come back at you, especially if the antagonism is uncalled for. That the Cheney/Bush regime went out of its way to be a bully antagonized lots of people to the point that the al Qaeda recruiters were having problems handling all the recruits that walked in. Normal people realize that acting like a grown-up does a lot more to relieve tensions than being a playground bully.
“There are some very clear differences between the two parties — on the use of torture and on whether to keep Guantanamo open, to name two . . . the above numbers suggest people may simply think Obama is right on the substance, too.
.
Um, no.
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Per that same poll, “On specific questions about the use of torture in terrorism investigations and the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, there is still broad public pushback to his announced policies. Fewer than half, 45 percent, said they approve of shutting down the military prison, and when asked whether they would accept those terrorism suspects in their home states, support dropped to 37 percent. The country remains sharply divided on torture, with nearly half saying there are cases in which torture should be considered.”
Some interesting stats in that poll…
Wow – 54% want smaller gov’t & fewer services! 54 to 41 – that is significant.. no?
52% think the stimulus has made no difference.. 800B, wasted!!
and – surprisingly – 37% say they are independent, versus 35% dem, and 22% repub. Those are fantastic numbers. The two major political brands are losing their luster. There may be hope for a viable 3rd party yet!
@sbj, even if 100% of the people say torture is justified in some cases, that doesn’t make it right. Or effective.
sbj~the substance of terrorism is a significantly broader issue than just Guantanamo Bay…our Country’s terrorism threat obviously existed prior to Guantanamo Bay and will continue after Guantanamo Bay. So I appreciate you pointing out the one issue on Gitmo, but the broader issue of terrorism goes way beyond Gitmo. And as a moderate, I am conflicted on my feelings regarding Gitmo…I certainly do not feel anything but contempt for the guilty people held there, I do feel sorry for the innocent people held there, however I struggle with how we resolve Gitmo…how long to we hold them? 2 more years, 5 more years, 10 more years, 20 more years, 50 more years…until they are all dead? That is my struggle on this issue, Gitmo is not a real popular subject because many, not all, but many people are conflicted about what we should do with them now. Most of us are very sorry we were ever even put in a position of having to now contemplate what to do with them. So while I certainly don’t want terrorists being released, I struggle with how long we should hold them and how we should unwind this situation we have placed ourselves in with regard to the detainees. However, I absolutely don’t buy this argument that we, as a Nation, do not have the ability to hold these terrorists in our own prison system…sorry, that is so short-sighted…we have held multiple terrorists in our prison system and still do today. But the Gitmo issue is very difficult to look through because of the complexity of the situation.
And while I am conflicted on Gitmo personally, as to how to resolve it…I am VERY supportive of the President and his stances on foreign policy thusfar, and if he ends up being able to negogiate and tread through the closing of Gitmo, that’s fine, even President Bush said it needed to be closed…it’s just that if it was easy, it would have been done already, but it is hard, so it was handed over to the new Administration to “deal” with.
Is it 19%, or 21%? As you have it written (Obama 55%, Republicans 34%) it’s 21, but you state 19%, so I’m wondering if the numbers got transposed and it should be Obama 54% and Republicans 35%?
@JennD: Hope you are well!
Greg said that there are very clear differences between the two parties – closing Gitmo and torture – and he said that Obama’s approval on fighting terrorism was evidence that the public also agreed with him on these two specific issues. Greg is wrong – the same poll he uses to make his point refutes what he is saying. I’m not cherry picking specific issues, I was pointing out that Greg was wrong.
How long do we hold the Gitmo detainees? Until they are tried by military court, or by Federal court, or until we determine they are no longer a threat and repatriate them, or until the war is declared over by Congress. I also believe that we can safely hold terrorists in our prison system. Please remember that it was Obama’s own FBI chief who expressed reservations – you shouldn’t blame the public (or Congress) for listening to him. I disagree that closing Gitmo was handed over to Obama by Bush because it was so difficult. Bush tried to use the military courts, twice, to prosecute these guys. It wasn’t his fault that Congress couldn’t write a constitutional procedure. Bush always intended on closing Gitmo at the right time as he said many times. Bush released, I believe, dozens of detainees.
ABC News poll? Get real. ABC is in Obama’s left pocket. They will provide any answer that fits his needs.
I wish the poll had just about Republicans vs. Obama, rather than “Republicans in Congress” vs. Obama. The result would be a bit less ambiguous that way.
“All terror all the time” no longer works.
Conservatives offer the most hawkish option as the only option, and then promptly forget they were wrong when the blowback arrives. Already Conservatives forgot their role with Bush in Iraq, they dont remember screaming insults at Americans who didnt believe their claims about how necessary it was to support non-moderate elements of the mujahadeen against the USSR or how necessary it was to Saddam with weapons against the Iranians. The less-hawkish option is sometimes better but never in the hallucinatory world of Conservatives.
re:
>>ABC News poll? Get real. ABC is in Obama’s left pocket.
>>They will provide any answer that fits his needs.
Yeah, everything is a “Liberal Conspiracy,” huh?
And yet what’s hilarious is that you’re the type who eagerly swallows every lie that Rush and Fox spew out daily.
And after embracing the most insane “black helicopter” conspiracies, you fault the Liberals for questioning things like 9/11, or Bush’s lies that led America into the worst blunder in its history in the Iraq fiasco.
You people are truly delusional.
Seek help.
In all the talk about torture and Gitmo something seems to be missing:the war on terror is over and the United States has lost. The first time that the NSA illegally tapped a citizen’s telephone.The first time that a person who was a Muslim (or looked like one)was imprisoned without charges. trial or legal assistance’ that was when the terrorists won. And to those who say that torture is justified because it works must agree that terrorism is also justified because it works. Go watch Judgement at Nuremberg.