Read More of the Same Day's Blog

The Iraq Study Group dominated last week's news. Now it is the President's turn. George Bush began his public relations counterattack against the ISG's stinging criticisms with a series of consultations. Both ABC and NBC led with his so-called listening tour. He visited the State Department and then hosted a briefing at the White House. Prominent among his guests were critics of the ISG's proposals. CBS countered with its own data: the network's own poll showed public support for the Iraq War plummeting.

CBS' Bob Schieffer likened public disapproval for the Iraq War effort with Vietnam: 62% now think sending troops to Iraq was a mistake; 60% called Vietnam a mistake in a Gallup Poll in 1973, at the height of opposition to that war. Support has eroded so fast because of Bush's own base: in the single month since the midterm elections, support for the war among Republican voters has nosedived from 70% to 47%.

Both ABC and NBC found their own in-house military analysts included among the White House guest list. ABC's retired general Jack Keane was "withering" in his condemnation of the ISG's recommendations, according to Martha Raddatz: "It is wholly inadequate, a cover story to accept defeat," he declared as he gave it a grade of F. NBC's Brian Williams interviewed his network's more dovish former brass. Barry McCaffrey and Wayne Downing both rejected adding US military reinforcements.

Andrew Tyndall 12/12/06 6:52:36 pm

© 2010 Tyndall Report