RASMUSSEN POLLS NSA SPYING, THEN AND NOW

... and, you will be astonished to learn, gets very different results.

Rasmussen, December 28, 2005:

Sixty-four percent (64%) of Americans believe the National Security Agency (NSA) should be allowed to intercept telephone conversations between terrorism suspects in other countries and people living in the United States. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that just 23% disagree.

Rasmussen today:

Just 26% of Likely U.S. Voters favor the government's secret collecting of these phone records for national security purposes regardless of whether there is any suspicion of wrongdoing. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 59% are opposed to the practice. Fifteen percent (15%) are undecided.

You may have already detected the reason for the very different results. The question that led to today's result makes what the NSA is doing sound as sinister as possible:

The federal government has been secretly collecting the phone records of millions of Americans for national security purposes regardless of whether there is any suspicion of wrongdoing. Do you favor or oppose the government's secret collecting of these phone records?

The question back in 2005 (for a somewhat different NSA program) made what was being done sound rather different:

Should the National Security Agency be allowed to intercept telephone conversations between terrorism suspects in other countries and people living in the United States?

But given how much better Republicans are at framing than Democrats, I fear that public opinion actually is going to be very different, as measured by other pollsters. The publi believed Bush was running a TERRORIST SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM because 9/11! 9/11! 9/11! THEY HATE US FROM OUR FREEDOMS! SMOKING GUN/MUSHROOM CLOUD! Whereas I fear the public will think Obama is doing it because BENGHAZI! IRS! AP! JAMES ROSEN! CHICAGO WAY! I guess we'll find out when polling outfits without partisan agendas start doing surveys.