On the August 24 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, host Wolf Blitzer again left unchallenged Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Ken Mehlman's false assertion that the American public does not support a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq. Moments after asking Mehlman about a CNN poll conducted August 18-20 that showed that 52 percent of respondents believe the Iraq war is a “distraction,” Blitzer allowed Mehlman to assert that the American people “understand the last thing we want to do is cut and run on a political timetable, which would give a huge victory for the enemy.” However, the only two polls to ask a question about withdrawing troops from Iraq in August found that a majority of Americans support a timetable for withdrawal.

The latest public poll to ask a question about a timetable, an August 9-13 Pew Research Center for the People & the Press poll, found that 52 percent of respondents said the United States should set “a timetable for when troops will be withdrawn from Iraq,” with an additional 2 percent stating that the United States "[s]hould get out now." Only 41 percent said that the United States should not set a timetable for withdrawal. While the August 18-20 CNN poll did not ask about a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq, the previous CNN poll, which was conducted August 2-3, found that 57 percent of Americans said that the “U.S. should set a timetable for withdrawal by announcing that it will remove all of its troops from Iraq by a certain date,” compared with 40 percent who believe the “U.S. should keep troops in Iraq as long as necessary without setting any timetable for withdrawal.”

This is at least the second time Blitzer has allowed Mehlman to claim the public opposes withdrawal from Iraq despite polling indicating otherwise. As Media Matters for America noted, on the June 20 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, Mehlman claimed that Democrats, such as Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA), support a “cut-and-run” option, a “cut-and-jog” option, or a “cut-and-walk” option -- referring to Democratic calls for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. According to Mehlman: “The fact is if you did any of these things, the enemy would see it as surrender, and it would make Americans less safe.” Mehlman later went on to claim: “People may disagree about how we got there, they may disagree about some of the specifics, but they recognize that a strategy that the terrorists would see as surrender is the wrong strategy.” But in the most recent CNN poll at that time, 53 percent of respondents favored setting a timetable for withdrawal. Blitzer failed to correct Mehlman's claim, despite noting the poll's results four days earlier on the June 16 edition of The Situation Room:

BLITZER: The newest CNN poll that's out today, we asked this question: “Should the U.S. set a timetable to eventually withdraw troops from Iraq?” Fifty-three percent said yes, 41 percent said no. When we got more specific, we said -- asked this question: “Should the U.S. set a timetable to withdraw troops from Iraq within six months?” Only 28 percent said yes, 66 percent said no.

As Media Matters noted, on the August 9 edition of The Situation Room, Blitzer similarly left unchallenged CNN contributor Bay Buchanan's assertion that the public would not back Democrats if they pushed for a timetable for withdrawing from Iraq.

From the August 24 edition of CNN's The Situation Room:

BLITZER: By almost all accounts, Iraq is going to dominate the midterm elections, and this is an issue that clearly shows, according to all of our polls, the Democrats have a pretty consistent advantage.

“Which party would do a better job in Iraq?” In our most recent CNN poll, 47 percent said Democrats, 41 percent said Republicans. “Has the war in Iraq been a distraction from the war on terrorism?” Fifty- two percent say yes. “Essential to the war on terrorism?” Forty-four percent say no.

How worried are you that, because of Iraq, Republicans could lose control of the House and/or Senate?

MEHLMAN: Well, Wolf, I don't think that's the case at all. First of all, every election is going to be different, and every issue will be different. But, certainly, the war on terror is a critical issue in this election and many of the races.

And one of the important questions, and if you look at polls, people answer this question, Americans do not believe we should give the terrorists a victory in Iraq. Not the Republicans, but Mr. [Ayman al-] Zawahiri, the number two guy in Al Qaeda, said their goal is to use Iraq as a base to launch further attacks.

We remember how they were able to do that before 9-11 out of Afghanistan. Except Iraq is much more centrally located, it's between Syria and Iran, and it's home to the world's second-largest oil reserves.

If we were to do what most Democrats want to do, which is to cut and run and give the terrorists that kind of a victory, if we were to leave Iraq the way we left Vietnam, which, again, is what Mr. Zawahiri said his goal is, it would make America much less safe. It would encourage jihadists all over the world, and it will leave a failed state in a pivotal place.

We can't let that happen, and most Americans are against letting that happen.

BLITZER: Your Democratic counterpart, [Democratic National Committee chairman] Howard Dean, was in The Situation Room yesterday, and he strongly suggested that that argument, the argument you just made, is exactly what [former President] Richard Nixon and [former Vice President] Spiro Agnew made in prolonging the war in Vietnam and thousands of American troops died needlessly in the process.

His argument to you would be, how many more American troops have to die before you recognize there's a civil war there and there's a no-win situation for the United States?

MEHLMAN: Wolf, Mr. Dean has said that for a long time. You may remember, almost a year ago, he was on a radio station where he said the notion that we're going to win in Iraq is wrong. He's had this kind of defeatist approach.

I think that's wrong. Here's the difference: Ho Chi Minh and his colleagues in Vietnam did not say that their goal was to use Vietnam to launch attacks on the American homeland. This is what Al Qaeda has said. This is what the enemy has said, and they have a record of doing it.

There wasn't a history with Vietnam the way that there is in Iraq, where, when we pulled out of Lebanon and we pulled out of Mogadishu, it was used by [Osama] bin Laden and others to recruit more jihadists and encourage more danger.

The fact is, the situation in Iraq is much more critical to American national security, which is why we cannot allow it to fail. We have to win this war.

Will it be tough? Absolutely. Will it be challenging in days ahead? Sure. The American people, though, understand that, and they understand the last thing we want to do is cut and run on a political timetable, which would give a huge victory for the enemy. According to the enemy's own words, they would use it as a victory.