"Poll surprises out-of-touch paper"

As Michael reported earlier , two of the New York Times staunchest war critics are coming around on the surge. So are the American people. That didn't stop the Old Gray Lady from rerunning a poll that showed support for the war increasing, however. Debra Saunders of the San Francisco Chonicle writes:

When the New York Times poll found that the number of Americans who think it was right for the United States to go to war in Iraq rose from 35 percent in May to 42 percent in mid-July, rather than promptly report the new poll findings, the paper conducted another poll. As the Times' Janet Elder wrote Sunday, the increased support for the decision to go to war was "counterintuitive" and because it "could not be easily explained, the paper went back and did another poll on the very same subject."

Round Two found that 42 percent of voters think America was right to go into Iraq, while the percentage of those polled who said that it was wrong to go to war had fallen from 61 percent to 51 percent.

The headline for Elder's piece read, "Same Question, Different Answer. Hmmm." But it should have read: "America's Paper of Record out of Touch with American Public."

...

Since this war began, there always have been people rooting for failure. With the death toll of U.S. troops surpassing 3,560, Americans have cause to be wary and distressed. They may tell pollsters that they are pessimistic, but that does not mean that they are prepared to lose.