Whom do you trust?

So I'm looking at these poll results (New York Times article). They look awful for president Bush at first glance. But they're really not. I think they show the reality of the spectrum of support for the war.

It's been sold to us through the media that the american public is Against The War™. And I think that has a lot to do with the way poll questions are worded and the answers interpreted.

Do you want the troops to come home? Do you want the war to end? Well, of course we do, even those of us who support the effort. Are we unhappy with the way the war has gone? In hindsight, yes. Since it was the Bush Administration handling the war, are we unhappy with the way the Bush Administration handled the war?

Is there a "B" choice?

No.

We have one administration at a time, and that's the one we had. So yeah. We're unhappy. I expect Bush is, too. Which is why last spring -- and really since the last election, he's changed the way he's handled the war by changing the people handling the war.

Now.... do we think Mr. Kerry or Mr. Gore would've done a better job? Anybody ever ask that question?

Here's the answer I expect you'd get: Something close to 21% would say "yes".

Your 3% there are your Alex Jones fans. Your 21% is your hard-left core Democratic base, and people who would vote for Hitler if he were running as a democrat (yeah, there are people almost that bad. In both of the major parties, I might add -- but I'd venture to say it's more prevalent in the "D" category. The ones in the "R" category are probably represented somewhere in that 5% number.)

The 68% number represents mainstream America. The ones that don't have binary brains. The ones who can hold two opposing concepts in their heads and retain the ability to function. The ones who understand nuance as something other than a vehicle to justify their own very non-nuanced biases.

68% trust the military to resolve the war. Does that sound like a mandate for a pullout to you?

Now here's the kicker. Knowing that Bush's style is to delegate -- one could argue he's in that 68% himself. Think about it.