Public coming around to Bush's lies

We are often told that the dKos community is some sort of alternate universe, often at odds with the American people and their love affair with George Bush.

Well, every once in a while, things don't look so bleak:

For the first time since the beginning of the war in Iraq, a solid majority of Americans believe the Bush administration either "stretched the truth" about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction or told outright lies, according to a new opinion survey.

The poll by the University of Maryland found that 52 percent of respondents said they believed President George W. Bush and his aides were "stretching the truth, but not making false statements" about Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's chemical, biological and nuclear programs.

Another 10 percent said US officials were presenting Congress, the American public and the international community "evidence they knew was false," indicated the survey which was made public Tuesday.

The corollary is particularly telling: only 32 percent of Americans believe the US government was "fully truthful" in its rationales for war.

Surprisingly, the number of people who believed Bush and his cabal about Hussein/Al Qaeda ties is actually higher. In reality, the Iraq/AQ ties were patently bogus from day one, while Hussein did, at one point, have chemical weapons. Claims of WMDs, while tenous, at least had some basis in possibility. Claims of an Iraq/Al Qaeda alliance were always patently absurd.

Given the weeks of coverage over the lack of WMDs, the results are not surprising. But in both cases, a majority of Americans believe the administration was less than full truthful, which should 1) have serious repercussions as the Iraq War body count continues to rise, and 2) invite unwanted and damaging comparisons to Clinton's lies. It makes it a lot harder to pretend he has integrity.

Posted July 02, 2003 07:44 AM