from The Wall Street Journal, 7/31:
Despite criticism over prewar intelligence and postwar casualties, President Bush retains surprisingly strong support on Iraq, and he benefits from rising optimism about the economy, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found.
"He's down about where incumbents are when they're in pretty good shape" for re-election, observes Republican pollster Robert Teeter, who conducts the Journal/NBC poll with his Democratic counterpart Peter Hart.
The survey showed that a solid 66% of Americans approve of Mr. Bush's handling of the war on terrorism, though approval of his foreign policy is a less robust 55%. Some 37% say that postwar events have diminished their trust in Mr. Bush "somewhat" or "a great deal," but an identical proportion say their trust in the president has increased. And by a margin of 56% to 30%, Americans say Democrats are "mostly playing politics" about the administration's rationale for war rather than offering "legitimate criticism."
Even more striking is the fact that continuing casualties -- at least 110 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq since Mr. Bush declared major combat operations over on May 1 -- haven't eroded public support for the military's continued role in Iraq. Roughly seven in 10 Americans say the U.S. should have taken action to remove Saddam Hussein from power, and nearly six in 10 say U.S. troops should remain in Iraq as long as necessary, even if the reconstruction process takes five years.
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