Monday, June 09, 2014

PUBLIC REACTION TO BERGHDAL-GATE IS BARELY DISTINGUISHABLE FROM "MEH"

After the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner release set off such copious amounts of howling that I could barely hear Fox News moaning about Benghazi, I expected the first poll, from Pew, to have much worse numbers for President Obama than these:





Yeah, the response is negative, but the nays aren't even close to a majority. A quarter of respondents have no firm opinion at all. Strange given the fact that this was the moral equivalent of handing Al Qaeda's leadership our nuclear launch codes, or so every shrieking critic has led me to believe.

Bergdahl is supposed to be someone Real Americans want shot at dawn, but even conservative Republicans can't muster a plurality to declare him evil, much less a majority:





The only number that's truly going the GOP's way is this one:





After years in which the president, against all logic and common sense, acted as if Republican members of Congress could be honorable men and women and honest, patriotic negotiating partners, Americans, alas, still actually believe that that's so (and on this issue I'd say that's a regrettable delusion with regard to conservative Democrats as well). Political insiders never stop talking about Congress that way, so I can't blame Americans for being fooled. But it's sad.

3 comments:

Victor said...

It took President Obama a while to come to his full senses, and realize that no matter what he tries to do, the Republicans would undermine him.

And he knew that if he told Congress, the Republicans would immediately make a bull-rush to the nearest TV camera, or radio mike, and start to undermine him, and any deal.

Loathsome, is too nice a word for these sociopaths.

More like treasonous, or traitorous - though not quite: 'Just close enough, to make governing not work.'

Knight of Nothing said...

I wish Pew/USA Today had included the demographic parameter of veteran status. I'd be curious to know how current and former vets feel about the exchange. My guess is that their opinions might make the various heads of Fox News anchors explode.

trnc said...

Talk about being tried in the court of public opinion.