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Saturday, March 2, 2002
WAR ON TERROR
¾ of public say U.S. will achieve victory
Just 23% of those polled agree with Daschle's pessimistic view
Posted: March 2, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jon Dougherty
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com--> © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
Despite Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., questioning whether the Bush administration's war against terrorism will be successful, recent polls suggest the public believes the U.S. will ultimately achieve victory.
According to independent pollster Scott Rasmussen, fully 75 percent of the public believes the U.S. is very likely or somewhat likely to win the war, while only 23 percent say victory isn't likely.
Even among Democrats, Rasmussen said, 68 percent believe the war is winnable.
The national telephone survey of 1,000 adults was conducted Feb. 27-28. The margin of sampling error is 3 percentage points, with a 95 percent level of confidence.
Republicans and Democrats are exchanging criticisms after Daschle was quoted as saying continued success in the war was "somewhat in doubt."
"How dare Sen. Daschle criticize President Bush while we are fighting our war on terrorism, especially when we have troops in the field," Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said in a statement Friday. "He should not be trying to divide our country while we are united."
In response, Daschle aides, also in a written statement, said their boss stood by his comments but that they were making "no criticism of President Bush or his campaign against terrorism."
Daschle has not ruled out a possible Democratic challenge to President Bush in 2004.
"He's attempting to fill the void as the alternative to President Bush," GOP consultant Scott Reed said. "He's not running, but he is. This is a manifestation of that, and it will continue."
The Senate majority leader is no stranger to controversy, even in his own party.
"This is the second time this year that Daschle has taken a position on a major issue that is strongly at odds with public opinion," Rasmussen said. "Earlier, in a major policy address, he claimed that the Bush tax cuts were bad for the economy," even though only "1-in-5 agreed with him on that point."
In a related CBS/New York Times poll conducted Jan. 21-24, 75 percent of those surveyed said the U.S. would eventually find and capture or kill al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden, believed responsible for planning the Sept. 11 attacks.
"It's unlikely that Daschle will publicly challenge this perspective at this time," Rasmussen said.
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Jon E. Dougherty is a staff reporter and columnist for WorldNetDaily, and author of the special report, "Election 2000: How the Military Vote Was Suppressed."
