Gallup: Americans Favor Meeting With U.S. Enemies
Gallup has a survey out today showing that a strong majority of Democrats and Independents and almost half of Republicans would support a presidential-level meeting with nations unfriendly to U.S. interests.
Dems: 79% in favor, 19% opposed
Inds: 70% in favor, 29% opposed
GOPers: 48% in favor, 51% opposed
Asked if a POTUS should meet with Iranian leaders, six of 10 (59%) were supportive. Here's the party divide on the Iran question:
Dems: 71% in favor, 26% opposed
Inds: 58% in favor, 40% opposed
GOPers: 48% in favor, 51% opposed
The poll surveyed 1,013 Americans nationally and was conducted May 19-21.
Uhhh...let's see. This Poll was done by telephoning homes on May 19th through May 21st. I have an idea...let's ask the same question of the of folks not sitting at home on Monday through Wednesday and see if the results are the same...
Of the 1,013 subjects...what was that political party breakout again? Hmmmmm?
The issue is not whether we should negotiate with our enemies or not. The issue is under what conditions should we negotiate. It is amazing that all those "professional" polsters do not know how to phrase a question properly. Or is it that they know but they phrase it so that they will get the responses they want?
Here is the specifics of the question asked and answered by Obama:
QUESTION: In 1982, Anwar Sadat traveled to Israel, a trip that resulted in a peace agreement that has lasted ever since.
In the spirit of that type of bold leadership, would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?
OBAMA: I would.
========================
So, did Gallup ask if they favored the POTUS meeting WITHOUT PRECONDITION the leaders of hostile nations? If that was left out of the survey then the results are meaningless in the context of the campaign of 2008.
Just for fun, read up about Kennedy's meeting with Khruschev just months into his administration. The Soviet archives and Kennedy's own reflections agree that it led directly to the aggressive actions of the Soviets in Berlin, Cuba and elsewhere. Demonstrating alarmingly naive world views in the presence of adversaries is not good foreign policy - regardless of what Obama, Carter and their ilk preach.
It is clear that McBush is out of touch with Americans. McBush's values are different than mainstream values. The current bunch of jokers have proven that their foreign policy has been the most disastorous in the history and McBush wants to continue the same failed policy to which Americans are objecting too.
"McBush"? "current bunch of jokers"? Is it impossible for Leftists to argue without sneering? Only in the closeted world of group-think called academia, does the use of ad hominem attacks by supposed "intellectuals" pass for serious analysis in discussions of national security policy. The reading of factual history is obviously not a Leftist forte, nor a requirement for advancing an ideology. In terms of foreign policy, of "the most disastrous in the (sic) history", one need look no farther than the inexperienced JFK's disastrous meeting with Kruschev, cited in a cogent comment above, LBJ's "fight-halt-talk" idiocy in SE Asia, and Carter's hopeless attempts to ensure national security through talks and military weakness during the 1970's. President Bush's values are certainly "out of touch" with mainstream Democrats, and that is why the American people rightfully tend not to trust modern Democrats with national security.
Shades of Wat Tyler. More learned folks realize this type of parley can be a head dropping experience.
Was the first question of the poll, can you interrupt your daily viewing of Oprah to take this survey?
A hefty percentage of Americans believe that
Democrats will bring down gas prices and
"stop" the war shortly after election in Nov.
The American people will eventually succomb
to the MSM non-stop blitz on ANY position. A
good percentage of Americans believes in
the tooth fairy....hence state lotteries. Some
people even believe that the MSM is fair
and balanced, EXCEPT for Fox News. Some
people actually belive that Bill Clinton
is a man of character........ you get my drift.
"Just for fun, read up about Kennedy's meeting with Khruschev just months into his administration. The Soviet archives and Kennedy's own reflections agree that it led directly to the aggressive actions of the Soviets in Berlin, Cuba and elsewhere."
Given that Khrushchev abandoned his threat to deny Western access right to West Berlin, I'm not sure this is correct. But even if you're right about Kennedy's meeting with Khrushchev being a disaster, what does that prove? Lots of American presidents met with Soviet premiers, including Republican presidents: Eisenhower met with Khrushchev (before Kennedy did), Nixon met with Brezhnev, Reagan met with Gorbachev.
Any summit meeting or any type of negotations can go wrong. The problem with Kennedy was not that he met with Khrushchev, but that he prepared badly for it.