72% of Bush supporters still believe Iraq had WMD

[Subway]

Even after the final report of Charles Duelfer to Congress saying that Iraq did not have a significant WMD program, 72% of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq had actual WMD (47%) or a major program for developing them (25%). Fifty-six percent assume that most experts believe Iraq had actual WMD and 57% also assume, incorrectly, that Duelfer concluded Iraq had at least a major WMD program. Kerry supporters hold opposite beliefs on all these points.

Similarly, 75% of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda, and 63% believe that clear evidence of this support has been found. Sixty percent of Bush supporters assume that this is also the conclusion of most experts, and 55% assume, incorrectly, that this was the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission. Here again, large majorities of Kerry supporters have exactly opposite perceptions.

These are some of the findings of a new study of the differing perceptions of Bush and Kerry supporters, conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes and Knowledge Networks, based on polls conducted in September and October.

Steven Kull, director of PIPA, comments, "One of the reasons that Bush supporters have these beliefs is that they perceive the Bush administration confirming them. Interestingly, this is one point on which Bush and Kerry supporters agree." Eighty-two percent of Bush supporters perceive the Bush administration as saying that Iraq had WMD (63%) or that Iraq had a major WMD program (19%). Likewise, 75% say that the Bush administration is saying Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda. Equally large majorities of Kerry supporters hear the Bush administration expressing these views--73% say the Bush administration is saying Iraq had WMD (11% a major program) and 74% that Iraq was substantially supporting al Qaeda.

Steven Kull adds, "Another reason that Bush supporters may hold to these beliefs is that they have not accepted the idea that it does not matter whether Iraq had WMD or supported al Qaeda. Here too they are in agreement with Kerry supporters." Asked whether the US should have gone to war with Iraq if US intelligence had concluded that Iraq was not making WMD or providing support to al Qaeda, 58% of Bush supporters said the US should not have, and 61% assume that in this case the President would not have. Kull continues, "To support the president and to accept that he took the US to war based on mistaken assumptions likely creates substantial cognitive dissonance, and leads Bush supporters to suppress awareness of unsettling information about prewar Iraq."

...

http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/Pr...0_21_04.html#1

NO ******* COMMENT!

Fredi

[Ask The Geezer]

I wonder how many believe he did it because SH tried to have his dad assassinated? [raises hand]

I wonder how many don't give a damn either way?

[yasunobu13]

I was wondering how long until you posted this, Subway

[SuprasRbetter]

http://www.fishkite.com/notes/iraqiwmds.html

[Subway]

Originally posted by yasunobu13
I was wondering how long until you posted this, Subway

We have some lag over here right now.

Fredi

[gerbick]

I'm wondering for the details of the people that's been asked. Just saying supporters and some nebulous number doesn't exactly make it credible.

[aversion]

Originally posted by gerbick
I'm wondering for the details of the people that's been asked. Just saying supporters and some nebulous number doesn't exactly make it credible.

I'm not sure how the numbers are 'nebulous', they seem pretty specific, but the full questionaire and details of the polled 'panel' are available on that website linked in the original post.

[Ask The Geezer]

Good Grief! I just thought of something terrible. What the hell are we going to find to talk about in the CL after next week?

[yasunobu13]

Originally posted by iaskwhy
Good Grief! I just thought of something terrible. What the hell are we going to find to talk about in the CL after next week?

oh please, there will still be 2 months of recounts to discuss

[aversion]

How shocking it was that no one predicted president nader's success.

[Ask The Geezer]

Phewwww, had me worried. You think it'll be that close this time?

[Subway]

Originally posted by iaskwhy
Phewwww, had me worried. You think it'll be that close this time?

I'm sure Bush will find a way to make it close, so I guess we will be talking about the next Florida sooner or later.

Fredi

[Ask The Geezer]

Hmmmm. I don't really feel any sense of who's going to win, one way or the other. Every time I have had a feeling about it, I've been wrong. Actually, this time, I would prefer they both lose. But just out of the blue, I think Bush is going to get it in a landslide.

[gerbick]

Originally posted by aversion
I'm not sure how the numbers are 'nebulous', they seem pretty specific, but the full questionaire and details of the polled 'panel' are available on that website linked in the original post.

by nebulous, I mean that the panel they're talking about is still a small sampling imho.

now as far as who'll win, seriously. this is a toss up. and that's not good.

[ViRGo_RK]

I would say that Bush is the lesser of two evils.

But that's not how it should be. And the more I think about it, the more I think they both are horrible in their own little way.

[Ask The Geezer]

Personally, I would never vote for Kerry because of what he did after he got back from the Nam. But Bush should have been impeached last January. Both candidates ARE the worst runners the country has had in a lifetime, and I'm hoping America learns a real lesson from this fiasco. Freedom from bad government comes with a price tag, and it isn't paid by people watching the primaries on TV from their sofas and Barcaloungers.

[Ultima Designs]

It is rather possible that Iraq had WMD and that they even still have it today. As Kenneth M. Pollack, arguably the world's foremost expert on Iraq, has said, it is possible that Saddam scaled back his WMD arsenal to small, hideable quantities, and instead maintained the capability to produce WMD as soon as he wanted it. Just because WMD has not been found does not mean that it is not there.

[Ask The Geezer]

For those who had the time to watch the war in iraq as it was happening, it ought to be easy to remember that SH even publically
threatened to use WMD if the coalition attacked. I never understood the whining about not being able to find any kind of WMD, as we know damn well he had it, since we sold him some of it. It's a big desert and sand is easy to dig in.

[gerbick]

Originally posted by iaskwhy
For those who had the time to watch the war in iraq as it was happening, it ought to be easy to remember that SH even publically
threatened to use WMD if the coalition attacked. I never understood the whining about not being able to find any kind of WMD, as we know damn well he had it, since we sold him some of it. It's a big desert and sand is easy to dig in.

I thought he simply stated that he'd "drive back the infidel coalition forces"... no concrete comments about weapons.

[Subway]

Originally posted by Ultima Designs
Just because WMD has not been found does not mean that it is not there.

Sorry, nothing against you personaly, but this can be sayd about anything. For example I could say that I have information that there is WMD below your house and I invade your house with my friends and destroy your life because I say there is WMD and because you can't prove me wrong without making a huge hole where you don't have enough money to make the hole and without destroying your house. Then after I completly destroyed your house and made a 100 meter deep hole where your house was and after it was proven that my infos where based on nothing and most likely completly wrong ... even then I would still say that there is WMD, just an other ten meters deeper ... and surprisingly people would still believe me and let me make the hole deeper and deeper ... you get the idea, for something as a war or making a 100 meter deep hole below your house, there should be more base to it than just "it could be".

Fredi