Democratic Leadership: Moving the Numbers

Very few people ever have anything good to say about the Democratic leadership in Congress--either Nancy Pelosi in the House or Harry Reid in the Senate. In fact, however, House Democrats have come up with proposals to curtail the war that enjoy broad public support.

According to a USA Today Gallup poll, big majorities of the American public support Democratic ideas on Iraq. That includes requiring U. S. troops to come home if the Iraqi government fails to meet promises (77% favor-20% oppose), requiring troops to stay in the U. S. a year before being redeployed (76-21), withdrawing troops by the end of 2008 (60-39), capping the number of U. S. troops (54-42).

Interestingly enough, majorities do not yet accept the more aggressive approaches favored by liberal war opponents, including revoking the original war resolution (44-52) or cutting funding for the war (37-61).

Although strongly opposing the Bush administration's conduct of the war in general and the surge in particular, the American public is still reluctant to support a full-scale confrontation with the leadership in the White House. The Bush administration may be a renegade government, but the public doesn't want confrontations.

At least not yet.

Despite the uncertain and difficult environment, the Democratic leadership has shown a lot of political savvy in coming up with proposals that capture the public mood.

For that they deserve credit.

Now, for the more difficult task of embodying these ideas in legislation.