Voters Critical of Obama on Afghanistan, Iran

2 years ago

0 Comments Say Something »

Text Size

Contributing Editor

Voters are split evenly on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan as General Stanley McChrystal, the top commander there, has requested, and they are also critical of President Obama, saying he is not doing what it takes to win, according to a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll conducted Sept. 29-30.

On another foreign policy issue in the region, 69 percent said they did not believe Obama was being tough enough on Iran. And, by 51 percent to 45 percent, those polled believe Obama apologizes too much to the rest of the world for past U.S. policies.

Overall, Obama's job approval rating now stands at 50 percent to 42 percent with 8 percent undecided, the lowest in this poll since he took office.

The mixed feelings about Afghanistan among the public are reflected in several of the responses in the poll.

Voters say they support the military action in Afghanistan by 64 percent to 27 percent, including a plurality of Democrats among whom opposition has been increasing, and they believe by 60 percent to 36 percent that the military action in Afghanistan is important to prevent terrorist attacks in the U.S.

But they divide at 43 percent each on whether to send more troops or to bring them home, and when asked if Obama is fulfilling his campaign promise to do what it takes and finish the fight in Afghanistan, they say by 50 percent to 37 percent that he is not. Thirteen percent did not express an opinion.

Voters say they trust military commanders to decide the next steps in Afghanistan over the president by 66 percent to 20 percent. Right now, the Obama administration has the request for more troops under review.

The poll also underlines a point made early last month in the New York Times that if Obama decides he needs more troops, he may have to rely on Republican support. Republicans back an increase by 60 percent to 30 percent while Democrats oppose one by 59 percent to 27 percent. Independents favor an increase by 46 percent to 36 percent. (The numbers don't add up to 100 percent because the remainder of voters fell into the "continue" as-is or "don't know categories).

Fox can always be counted on to ask a few unexpected questions and one was: "If Hillary Clinton had won the election, do you think she would be doing a better or worse job as president than Barack Obama is doing?" Twenty-seven percent said she would be doing better, 28 percent said worse, 25 percent answered "about the same" and 21 percent had no opinion.

Filed Under: Barack Obama, Iran, Obama Administration, Afghanistan, Poll Watch

Tagged: Daily Guidance, DailyGuidance

Our New Approach to Comments

In an effort to encourage the same level of civil dialogue among Politics Daily’s readers that we expect of our writers – a “civilogue,” to use the term coined by PD’s Jeffrey Weiss – we are requiring commenters to use their AOL or AIM screen names to submit a comment, and we are reading all comments before publishing them. Personal attacks (on writers, other readers, Nancy Pelosi, George W. Bush, or anyone at all) and comments that are not productive additions to the conversation will not be published, period, to make room for a discussion among those with ideas to kick around. Please read our Help and Feedback section for more info.