The Plum LineGreg Sargent’s blog
The GOP strategy on Afghanistan has been to frame President Obama’s choice as a decision over whether or not to go along with his commanders’ desire for an expanded counterinsurgency, and the new NBC/WSJ poll suggests it may be bearing some fruit.
But first, I wanted to flag some amusing numbers from the internals that make Dick Cheney’s claim that Obama is “dithering” for too long over what to do look pretty silly:
As you may know, the Obama administration has said it will not make a firm decision about whether to send more troops to Afghanistan until after that country’s upcoming runoff election when the president of Afghanistan will be determined and the political situation in that country is clearer. Do you support or oppose this decision?
Support 58% Oppose 37%
Fifty-eight percent support Obama’s postponement of a decision. Looks like a big majority is just fine with his “dithering.”
That said, the broader GOP strategy may be moving the numbers a bit. Forty-seven percent support a troop increase, up from last month and higher than the 43% who oppose it. And 62% have more confidence in the generals to determine the way forward, while only 25% have more confidence in the President and his Secretary of Defense.
But, shockingly, the public adamantly doesn’t want Obama to rush this extremely complex and momentous decision.
