Oh, go ahead and take the samples for polls if you care to take the time and spend the money. I just don’t think they should be used to make sweeping general pronouncements or policy for that matter. I think that our elected officials should do and act for the best interests of the country for long term (pipe dream, I know). Not to do and act based on general “public opinion” derived from samples taken for polls (which may or may not have an agenda) that show which way the wind is blowing at a given moment in time.

How does one sample public opinion without polls? Unless you increase the sample size by about 5 fold. (Which is expensive but would produce better data).

I didn’t say you made it up. But, I’m not big on polls. Lies, damn lies, and statistics and all that. Depends upon the sample size and who is asked the questions. Only one of the polls in your link has any data on party affiliation. So who did they ask beyond “x number of adults over 18″?

For example, the “In general, do you approve or disapprove of the job that George W. Bush is doing in handling the situation in Iraq?” question.

I can answer that I don’t approve based upon my belief that the President hasn’t done enough to achieve success to this point but that doesn’t mean I don’t support the effort. So the “In general, do you approve or disapprove” question only tells me that people aren’t happy about the handling of the situation, but not why. The question and results infer something that may or may not be. Which why I wrote that I have a hard time reconciling with The simple truth is that most Americans….

Re your #2. Couldn’t agree more. I didn’t mention party just incumbents.

You can play semantics with “MSM” if you want. But I think you know what I’m referring to: major media outlets. TV (ABC/CBS/NBC/CNN/FOX) and major national/regional newspapers (NY Times/ Washington Post/LA Times/Boston Globe/USA Today/WSJ/name the local paper, etc). I would suggest that a majority of Americans get their information exclusively from those sources so it is not just people who cannot be bothered to read and make informed decisions (although there are plenty of those 9-second sound bite types). The buyer may also have limited selection depending upon location. The framing of the reporting from the “MSM” sources has much to do with how well versed Americans are in the debate and the perspective they have. So yes, I do think there is fault with the way the media reports events in Iraq and how it is shaping the debate based on bias (pick a direction!).

Three things.

1) Poll results are here, which BTW includes Wall Street Journal polling data which hardly constitutes biased liberal media.

http://www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm

I don’t make this stuff up……

2) No arguement we are not getting the best quality congressmen, but I would submit that is true of both democrats and republicans.

3) There is no such thing as the MSM. There is media, of all kinds. You can find all the news good or bad, in various outlets. Americans probably are not as well versed as they should be but whose fault is that? The Media’s? Or Americans who cannot be bothered to read and make informed decisions? You , the buyer, make the success or lack therof of the media. Simply citing the “The MSM is biased” is a convienent scapegoat. Much of the anti-MSM media is equally biased.

I read a commenter speculating that success on the part of these “leaders” will so thoroughly damage military morale in the long-term that they’ll have to implement a draft if they have need of significant military excursions in the next 10 years.

I do not believe that. Here is why I say that. I served in the Post-Vietnam years. In the aftermath of Vietnam back then, military morale did get pretty low at times (it was the Ford/Carter years) due to not only the pull out from Nam, but also budget cuts and shortages.

And then new leadership came along. We had the Cold war military build up (ships, planes, and troops) and there were some scary times with Reagan putting missiles in Europe (threats of the Soviets invading Europe etc.). There was much political turmoil back then. The nation did not re-institute the draft for those issues. Not saying the times are the same. They are not. I believe the military knows that they can succeed in whatever mission they are given with out a draft, if the politicians will let them.

The only ones who seem to want a draft are those politicians who believe they can make hay with it (Rangle, because he believed it would bolster the anti-war effort) but I don’t think it will go over with the military or anyone else unless the US is attacked again.