The January 10 editions of CNN's The Situation Room and MSNBC's Tucker featured reports on a January 5-7 USA Today/Gallup poll indicating that 61 percent of Americans oppose the “temporary but significant increase in the number of U.S. troops in Iraq” that the Bush administration is “considering,” while 36 percent support it. Neither report, however, noted that there has been no indication from the White House or the Defense Department that the increase in troops will be “temporary.” Indeed, news reports have indicated that the troop increase will be sustained for well over one year, and White House press secretary Tony Snow said that Bush will avoid using the term “surge” in reference to the troop increase because it implied a “rush hour” approach.

On the January 10 edition of Tucker, host Tucker Carlson cited the USA Today/Gallup poll to support his claim that “more than twice the number of people” support a “temporary surge” than support an “immediate withdrawal”:

CARLSON: Here are the poll numbers I'm reading, Frank [Donatelli, Republican strategist] -- and there are a lot of polls and they're not entirely consistent. But this sounds -- this is -- this comports with what I think. USA Today/Gallup poll -- 36 percent of voters approve of the idea of a temporary surge. That is more than twice the number of people who say they want an immediate withdrawal. So actually, this is not a popular idea, but it's not the least popular idea out there. Actually, [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi's [D-CA] ideas are less popular.

On the January 10 edition of The Situation Room, host Wolf Blitzer made a similar claim:

BLITZER: It's really an uphill struggle for the president. You saw that USA Today/Gallup poll: “Do you favor or oppose the president's plan to temporarily increase troops to stabilize Iraq?” Thirty-six percent favor, 61 percent oppose. I've seen other polls where the numbers are even more lop --

MARY MATALIN (Republican strategist): Those are actually [inaudible] that 40 percent --

BLITZER: Yeah.

In fact, the White House has offered no indication that the troop increase will be “temporary.” Indeed, according to two anonymous administration officials cited in a January 8 USA Today article, it will take “several months” just to phase in the 20,000 additional troops that will reportedly be sent. The article also noted: “It is unclear how long the additional troops would stay.” As the weblog Think Progress noted, Time magazine reported that the troop increase could last for up to two years. On January 10, The New York Times reported: “Mr. Snow last night said that the president would not be using the word 'surge' in his speech, adding that it implied what he called a 'rush hour' approach to a serious policy.”