The Spin Machine Pulling Double Duty

So a poll comes out showing a dramatic increase in how people view the war in Iraq and what does the MSM do?  They spin, spin, and spin:

Doesn’t make the war more popular?  Well, as Jules Crittenden points out there has been a 18 point swing in favor of the Iraq war since February and Michael Goldfarb points out that there is actually a 32 point swing since November of 2006.  Support for a timetable has fallen to 11% and more Americans now believe that we are succeeding in preventing Iraq from being used as a terrorist base, 51% to 36%, a year ago it was 39 to 49.  Pretty large swing.

And this is from a poll that oversampled Democrats by 5 points again, 33-28.

Additionally, you just know the lefties will bring up this number:

Do you think the U.S. should keep military troops in Iraq until the situation has stabilized, or do you think the U.S. should bring its troops home as soon as possible?

Keep troops in Iraq =  41% Bring troops home = 54%

As soon as possible means what?  A month, a year? 

They ask a follow up question to those 54% who want them home “as soon as possible” and only 16% want them home now before the job is done.  Down from a high of 21% in July.

Now granted, this is a poll, and you know how much weight I put in these polls.  But if the MSM can harp on them all the time to trash the Administration so they can use them to show that Iraq is working right?
 
But nooooooo, the MSM spins away:

The debate at home over the Iraq war has shifted significantly in
the two months since Gen. David H. Petraeus testified to Congress and President
Bush ordered the first troop withdrawals, with more Americans now concluding
that the situation on the ground is improving.

A new poll released yesterday underscored the changing political environment,
finding the public more positive about the military effort in Iraq than at any
point in 14 months as a surge of optimism follows the rapid decline in violence.
Yet Bush remains as unpopular as ever in the survey by the Pew Research Center
for the People and the Press, and the public remains just as committed to
bringing U.S. troops home.

The evolving public attitudes reflect, or perhaps explain, a turn in
Washington as well. While Bush and Congress are still fighting over the war, the
debate has moved to the back burner as Iran, spending, health care, the economy
and other issues generate more political energy. The focus of the presidential
campaign, especially on the Democratic side, has broadened as well. Even antiwar
groups that once denied that security has gotten better have recalibrated their
arguments to focus on the failed efforts to reach political conciliation among
Iraqi factions or the risk of war with Iran.

The shift has strategists in both parties reevaluating their assumptions
about how the final year of the Bush presidency and the election to succeed him
will play out. If current trends continue, Iraq may still be a defining issue
but perhaps not the only one, as it once seemed, according to partisan
strategists and independent analysts, particularly if the economy heads south as
some economists fear.

So basically the WaPo is warning its base, the Democrats, that while the war may be viewed as going better there are other issues the Democrats can use, like the economy.   Curious how that happens huh?  Can’t use Iraq as much anymore so lets start trashing the economy….all together now!

Even more telling is where they chose to put this article.

Page A10.

If the trends were opposite you know damn well which page that article would get, and with a great big splasy headline also.

Naw…no bias here. 

Curt

See author page