John McCain likes to distinguish his own position on Iraq from Barack Obama's as "victory" versus "surrender." You see, pulling the troops out of Iraq is losing unless it's on John McCain's terms in which case it's winning. It's all very Bushian, actually and, like Bush, the American people just aren't buying it, even, it would appear, our red state brethren.
As I noted last week, the latest North Carolina Rasmussen poll showed the following surprising result:
What is the most important goal in Iraq?Winning the war 40%
Getting troops home 54%
Not sure 7%
Today, we see a similar result coming out of Rasmussen's latest Arkansas poll:
What is the most important goal in Iraq?Winning the war 39%
Getting troops home 52%
Not sure 9%
But while they are not buying into the whole "withdrawal = surrender" thing, luckily for John McCain, they also don't appear to be voting on Iraq. In Arkansas, for example, 63% said it is at least somewhat likely that "all combat troops will be home from Iraq" by the end of Obama's first term; only 33% said the same of John McCain, but voters there still appear likely to elect McCain by a solid margin, albeit a significantly smaller one than a month ago.
McCain 48 (57)
Obama 39 (33)
And in North Carolina, while Rasmussen has the race a virtual deadheat, McCain is still slightly up.
McCain 45
Obama 43
Most conventional wisdom has it that if Iraq becomes a more pressing issue for Americans, that will be good for McCain. Seems to me these results beg to differ and, in fact, indicate that if voters were voting on Iraq, they'd vote for Obama.
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