Wash. Post, O'Beirne misrepresented public support for Iraq timetable

Summary: A Washington Post article misrepresented polling to state that the public is "evenly split" on withdrawing from Iraq. Similarly, National Review Washington editor Kate O'Beirne falsely claimed on NBC's Meet the Press that the public does "not support leaving prematurely, and a timetable to do so."

An August 27 article by Washington Post staff writers Jim VandeHei and Zachary A. Goldfarb misrepresented recent polling to depict the American public as "evenly split" on the issue of withdrawal from Iraq. Similarly, National Review Washington editor Kate O'Beirne falsely claimed on the August 27 edition of NBC's Meet the Press that the public does "not support leaving prematurely, and a timetable to do so." In fact, several recent polls have found that a majority of Americans support setting a timetable for withdrawal.

In their August 27 article, VandeHei and Goldfarb reported that many Democratic congressional candidates are hesitant to advocate a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq because of "the public's uncertainty over how best to proceed." The article went on to cite a recent poll conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press as evidence that "the public is evenly split over pulling out U.S. troops":

In many ways, Democratic candidates' reluctance to call for the withdrawal of troops reflects the public's uncertainty over how best to proceed.

The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, a nonpartisan polling organization, found this month that the public is evenly split over pulling out U.S. troops, with 48 percent in favor of keeping troops in Iraq and 46 percent in favor of withdrawal. Yet even among those who favor bringing U.S. troops home, only a third support doing so immediately. Asked another way, 52 percent of those polled said they would favor setting a timetable for getting out, while 41 percent would oppose that.

The "split" emphasized by VandeHei and Goldfarb appears in response to the following question: "Do you think the U.S. should keep military troops in Iraq until the situation has stabilized, or do you think the U.S. should bring its troops home as soon as possible?" But as blogger Greg Sargent noted, while this question offers two drastically different approaches to the war, it excludes the option that is the focus of the Post article -- setting a timetable for withdrawal. From Sargent's August 27 post:

That "46 percent in favor of withdrawal" cited by the Post is actually the number the poll cites as being is in favor of bringing home the troops "as soon as possible" or "now." In other words, in no way does that 46 percent represent all of those who want withdrawal in general, as the paper suggests. The second set of Pew numbers cited by the paper itself -- that respondents favor setting a timetable by a 52-41 margin -- is clearly a better way of measuring public sentiment on the broader withdrawal question, and it belies the suggestion that the poll found that the public is "evenly split over pulling out."

Sargent further noted that VandeHei and Goldfarb ignored numerous other recent polls in which a majority of respondents supported setting a timetable for withdrawal:

Meawhile [sic], the paper didn't bother mentioning that many other polls have shown that majorities want to set a withdrawal timetable, such as this CNN poll, which said respondents favor a timetable 57-40, or this Times poll, which says that 56 % favor a timetable. Then there's this Fox News poll, which said nearly 60 percent want all troops pulled out within a year.

While these polls cited by Sargent clearly show that most Americans support some form of withdrawal in the near future, prominent Republicans and conservatives continue to insist that the public is opposed to setting a timetable. In the most recent example, O'Beirne asserted on Meet the Press that regardless of "how pessimistic the public is, they do not support leaving prematurely, and a timetable to do so." In response, syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak noted that while the American public may not favor withdrawing from Iraq "prematurely," they do support withdrawal.

From the August 27 edition of NBC's Meet the Press:

AL HUNT (Bloomberg News' Washington bureau managing editor) : The one thing that's not credible, as the National Review pointed out, is stay the course. Bush's policy is the one policy that's absolutely not credible. So I think that makes it very tough for Republicans today.

[crosstalk]

O'BEIRNE: Right. Well, they are changing that to "adapt for victory" sort of stuff. And it is true that public opinion is closer to the former. Despite all of the bad news and how pessimistic the public is, they do not support leaving prematurely, and a timetable to do so.

EUGENE ROBINSON (Washington Post columnist): But this has to get better. Things have to get better in Iraq.

[crosstalk]

NOVAK: What they support is leaving, see. They're -- "You want to leave prematurely?" "No, I don't want to leave prematurely, but I want to leave."

—J.K.