OpEdNews - Article: NY Times/ CBS Poll Analysis: Only 15% Support Action Against Iran, Cheney Postiives at Record Low

There's a new March 7-11, 2007 NY Times/ CBS News poll. They've provided some of the basic stats so I've dug in to find some of the interesting findings, some of which, are not being reported in the 15 second sound bytes.

The poll was based on responses from 1,362 respondents, 698 of them Republican, 52% of them women.

Support for action against Iran has dropped significantly. from 15 or 21% in February, to 10% in this poll. The belief that Iran is a threat that can be contained with diplomacy now rose to its highest level of all the past polls reported-- 65%, with Republicans polling even higher, at 69%.

When asked, "members of the Bush administration have accused IRAN of supporting Iraqi insurgents by supplying them with weapons to use against American forces. When members of the Bush administration talk about Iran's involvement in Iraq" only 14% believed the Bush administration was telling the entire truth.

You have to wonder with such weak support for action against Iran, why the congressional Democrats have removed the part of their legislation requiring Bush to go to congress before taking action against Iran. This happened after the annual AIPAC meeting. The congress, both Democratic and Republican sides, are way to fearful of and influenced by AIPAC.

On most points, George Bush's low ratings have improved by a few points-- on Iraq, on Terrorism, the economy...

Congress dropped a few. The republican party actually hit a new low.

The question, "In general, is your opinion of the Republican party favorable or not favorable?"
brought a response of 34% favorable, 58% unfavorable-- the lowest favorable rating since 1994.

The questions, "In general, is your opinion of the Democratic party favorable or not favorable?"
brought a response of 47% favorable to 43% unfavorable.

Next, they asked what first words come to mind for Republicans and Democrats.
People thought-
-Bad/negative one third more for Republicans (16 to 12)
-Good positive 120% more for Democrats (11 to 5)
-Corrupt-- three times as much for Republicans (9 to 3)

Bad/negative was the highest percentage word for Republicans. Liberal was the highest percentage word for Democrats.

Here's a major one. They asked, "Which comes closer to your view: Government should do more to solve national problems; or Government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals?"
The results:
41 % Government should do more 52% Government doing too much

These numbers, alone, are deceiving. This question has poll results dating back to 1994. This is the strongest support for govenment seen in the history of this poll question. For some reason, the last time the question was asked, or at least, was listed, was July 2000.

In the previous polls, the highest pro government response was 34%, except for three polls, one reaching 38% in 1998, and two in 1996 at 36%. The support for government dropped to as low as 24% in 1995. Yet, this new poll has REPUBLICANS supporting government at a 35% level.

The immigration issue is not as strong as Republicans might hope. The difference between those who support allowing immigrants already in the states versus deporting them is about the same as previous polls, and the difference between the percentage who support maintaining levels of immigration versus decreasing levels is less than many previous polls.

When asked whether the respondent is a Republican, Democrat or independent, the response for this poll was:

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