> Bush approval drops, Democrats' goals backed -poll
>
> Sat Nov 11, 6:37 PM ET
>
> Just days after Democrats took over Congress,
> Americans embraced their top goals and President
> George W. Bush's job approval rating slid to 31
> percent, according to a Newsweek poll issued on
> Saturday.
>
> Huge majorities of those polled said they approved of
> the legislative priorities cited by Democratic leaders
> after their party seized control of the Senate and the
> House of Representatives from Republicans, the
> magazine said.
>
> [...]
>
> The strongest support, 92 percent, was for lowering
> drug prices for retirees on Medicare by allowing the
> government to negotiate directly with drug companies.
> Some three-quarters of respondents said it should be a
> top priority, according to Newsweek.
===================================== But you chose for some reason to omit what was the most relevant (and discouraging) part of the report which shows how confused Americans are about the war - a confusion which has been fostered through the media all week by the leadership of both parties which does not want public pressure to force the pace at which US forces are withdrawn from Iraq:
"But they (those surveyed) also expressed concerns that Democrats might seek to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq too quickly or hamper the administration's efforts to combat terrorism, it said."
and
"While a bare majority of 51 percent called the Democrats' victory 'a good thing,' even more said they were concerned about some of the actions a Democratic Congress might take, including 78 percent who were somewhat or very concerned that it would seek too hasty a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
"Another 69 percent said they were concerned that the new Congress would keep the administration 'from doing what is necessary to combat terrorism,' and two-thirds said they were concerned it would spend too much time investigating the administration and Republican scandals."
At best, the election was a very lukewarm referendum on Iraq, and the attacks on US forces and the political chaos there will continue to have by far the greater effect on the fate of the occupation than will the passive US public.