During a discussion with Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) on the September 20 edition of Fox News' Your World, host Neil Cavuto cherry-picked recent poll data to claim that the American people are not in the Democrats' “cut-and-run camp.” Cavuto noted a recent USA Today/Gallup poll's finding that “two-thirds” of respondents (67 percent) believe “Democrats in Congress” do not “have a clear plan for handling the situation in Iraq” without noting that the same poll also found that 61 percent of respondents believe President Bush does not have “a clear plan” for handling Iraq. In that poll, 36 percent of respondents said they believed President Bush did have a clear plan while 25 percent of respondents said they believed Democrats in Congress have a clear plan.
Cavuto also cited a recent Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll's finding that 51 percent of respondents “support the war in Iraq,” but did not mention that the poll also found that 43 percent of respondents would vote for “a candidate who wants to set a date to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq” as opposed to 36 percent who would favor “a candidate who wants the United States to stay in Iraq.” The third poll result Cavuto cited as the basis for his claim was the USA Today/Gallup poll's finding that respondents were “evenly divided” on whether “the U.S. made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq.”
The USA Today/Gallup poll was of registered voters, and was conducted September 15-17; the Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll was of likely voters, and was conducted September 12-13.
As Media Matters for America has noted, Democrats have offered several plans for addressing various issues related to U.S. involvement in Iraq and national security, but these plans either have gone largely unnoticed in the media or have been mischaracterized using GOP rhetoric like “cut and run.” When Jackson Lee noted that the course of action she favors “is certainly not cut and run,” Cavuto asked, "[W]hat is it if you leave now?" As Media Matters noted, the idea that critics of the war “say perhaps we ought to just pull out of Iraq” has been a Bush straw man. Democratic congressional leaders, in a September 4 letter to President Bush, called for “the phased redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq before the end of this year.”
From the September 20 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto:
JACKSON LEE: If you talk to your constituents that I've -- as I have talked to mine, I have reservists who are on their third or fourth redeployment. That is not the way to run a country. That is not the way to run a war. And it is not the way to restore and build a military.
CAVUTO: All right. But -- but --
JACKSON LEE: We are on a disastrous course.
CAVUTO: -- nevertheless, Congresswoman, when people were polled on this very subject, “Do you support the war in Iraq?” 51 percent of Americans do. Forty-four percent do not. When they're asked, “Do you think the U.S. made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq or not?” it's evenly divided at 49 a shot. And, finally, “Do Democrats in Congress have a clear plan for handling the situation in Iraq?” Two-thirds say, “No, you don't.” So, obviously, they're not in your cut-and-run camp, right?
JACKSON LEE: Well -- and I beg to differ. It is certainly not cut and run. We do --
CAVUTO: Well, what is it if -- what is it if you leave now? What is that? Define that.
JACKSON LEE: Well, we do have a plan. Let me just clarify it. First of all, Jack Murtha's plan is to leave as soon as practical. And I don't know how we have misconstrued his words to “cut and run” or to leave now.
