Mind you, the country in general also dislikes the swap (43/34). But that’s nothing as compared to how veterans feel both about Bose Bergdahl, and the deal that Barack Obama made to bring him back: “Veterans are much more harsh in their assessment of the 28-year-old sergeant. Only 6% of veterans who responded say they sympathized with him, while 33% say they were angry. By 68%-16%, veterans say Obama made the wrong decision.” A couple of other things:
- The Pew poll found a two-to-one ratio in favor of having the President inform Congress before he does this sort of thing.
- The Pew poll also found that this story was tied with the ongoing Veterans Affairs meltdown – and the meltdown is only getting worse – as being the most important thing that Americans were paying attention to right now. Third thing? The economy*.
- This poll is of adults. How all of this is playing out among likely voters… well. Glad I’m not the one who has to worry about that!
Years from now, when they write the books on the crash and burn of the Obama administration, they’re going to pick this time period as a good place to start Part III. When you live in a world where Andrea Mitchell is smacking back against ridiculous White House spin being done by a Democrat, you know that the situation has shifted. Maybe all that stuff that the National Journal is saying about how the Democratic party has privately given up on Barack Obama isn’t quite as far-fetched as I thought…
Moe Lane (crosspost)
*The administration would very much like to push the economic recovery, of course; they’re simply still stuck waiting for one to show up. Spoiler warning: lowered unemployment coupled with a lowered labor participation rate is not actually an economic recovery. The technical term for that, in fact, is ‘awful mess.’