War support dropping in Texas

Some data from the latest Texas Poll:

Fifty-six percent of poll respondents answered "yes" to the question of whether "the situation in Iraq was worth going to war over." Thirty-eight percent said "no," and 6 percent said they didn't know or didn't answer.

An identical poll taken in spring 2003 showed 72 percent of Texans agreed with the decision to go to war.

These numbers track pretty closely to the Bush/Kerry numbers in the same poll and other polls from around this time. I'd bet there's a very high correlation between the two.

Despite their support for the war, Texans say that it is not going well for the United States, with 67 percent rating progress there so far as "poor" or "fair," while 31 percent answered "excellent" or "good."

The poll also shows that a slight majority of Texans say the war on terrorism is not going well, with 44 percent of respondents rating its progress as "excellent" or "good" and 54 percent answering "fair or poor."

Four of five Texans say terrorist attacks on the United States are likely in the next year, with most believing they will come before the Nov. 2 national elections.

Respondents were almost evenly divided on whether the war in Iraq has made the United States safer from terrorism, with 45 percent saying it has and 50 percent saying it has not.

I'd like to think there's an opportunity here in these numbers, but I doubt it. I think support for the war would really have to drop among Texans to alter the Presidential numbers by more than a trifle. What we're seeing here is probably the bottom or very close to it.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on September 06, 2004 to Iraq attack | TrackBack