Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1999 10:32:03 -0400 Reply-To: aapornet at usc.edu Sender: owner-aapornet at usc.edu Precedence: bulk From: Mark Richards <Mark at bisconti.com> To: "'AAPORNET'" <aapornet at usc.edu> Subject: Polling ends war? MIME-Version: 1.0
Donald Lambro (chief political correspondent of The Washington Times, syndicated columnist) in "Direction signals powered by polls" writes today that White House pollster Mark Penn and many other pollsters are telling Clinton that "Americans are losing faith in his ability to achieve the goals he set forth when he began the bombing on March 24. That they want to stop the bombing and a negotiated settlement to the conflict."
A Pew Research Center report and a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll is cited. "Nothing engages Bill Clinton's mind more than polls showing what he is doing is not popular with the American people. And that is why he has begun moving toward negotiation with Belgrade while keeping up his bravado that the bombing runs are working and will go on until Slobodan Milosevic capitulates to NATO's demands that he withdraw his troops from Kosovo." Lambro acknowledges that popular opinion isn't the only factor-there's his own party and Al Gore. Conclusion: "This is why, one way or another, Mr. Clinton's war will be history before the end of the summer."
Remember the "Your mother wears combat boots" insult? An adult version could be "Your leader follows the polls."
Mark Richards