Riverwood Presbyterian Church

Politics

Nothing Succeeds Like Success

by Clay Staggs

Apparently the “surge” in Iraq is working. According to the Rasmussen polling group (which is, as near as I can tell, just about the best in the business), support for the War is up.

The latest Rasmussen Reports tracking poll finds that 47% of Americans now say the U.S. and its allies are winning the War on Terror (see crosstabs). That’s up from 43% a month ago and reflects is the highest level of confidence measured since December 2005. Over the past 35 months, confidence in the War on Terror has been higher than today only twice, in November and December 2005.

And:

In what may be just as significant a finding, only 24% of voters now believe the terrorists are winning. That’s down from 30% a month ago and represents the lowest level of pessimism recorded since 2004.

Couple that with the recent declaration from formerly stauch war opponent, Democrat Rep. Jack Murtha, that “I think the surge is working.” Read about his comments here.

All of this must just be terrible news for the Democrats, whose Senate leader, Harry Reid, said on the floor of the US Senate earlier this year that the war in Iraq was lost. Their leading presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, has also had a bad couple of weeks, with the latest polls out of Iowa showing her running behind Obama. She’s also got some fundraising scandals brewing, Bill making idiotic and provably false statements about whether he supported or opposed the Iraq war back in 2003, and she’s been found out to have planted questions at her own campaign events. Suddenly, she looks less than invincible.

Capping it all off is the latest whiney audiotape from Osama’s cave:

Bin Laden said it was unjust for the United States to have invaded Afghanistan for sheltering him after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, saying he was the “only one responsible” for the deadly assaults on New York and Washington.

Doesn’t your heart just bleed at the injustice?

If this keeps up (a big IF), the 2008 election dynamic will be even more interesting. If we wind up with a Hillary versus Rudy matchup (which I still think is most likely, though less certain than a month ago), I like Rudy’s chances a lot.