Not A Flag Tattoo?

Judging which candidate to vote for can be difficult. Fortunately, there are quick and easy ways of identifying which ones are best suited for office. From a CNN poll:

Another question asked in June: How often should a U.S. presidential candidate wear a flag pin (when dressed in other than casual clothes)?

Forty-one percent of respondents said a candidate should always wear one. Another 13 percent said "frequently," 16 percent said "sometimes," 19 percent said "only occasionally," and 9 percent said "never."

Personally, I think presidential candidates should always wear a button with my face on it. That way I know they care about me and are looking out for me.

Happy 4th!

New CNN Poll

Highlights from the survey [pdf] taken April 10-12:

• People oppose the war in Iraq by a 2-to-1 margin.
  
  
• It's not immediately clear to me why this question appears to have been asked twice, but about 60% favor withdrawing troops within a year or so.
  
  
• 69% think additional troops won't help in Iraq.

On April 18th and 19th, at least 210 Iraqis were killed in bombings, with that many more again injured.

I understand the concern many people have that we may be flirting with a war against Iran. It's pretty clear that a number of people would like to see that happen, and many of them are influential out of proportion to their wisdom. Still, I have a hard time really believing that anybody thinks they could sell another war in the Middle East with so many people agreeing that the current one is going so poorly.

Polling, Polling everywhere...

We had some questionable polls thrown around in the comments sections but I wanted to take this opportunity to show the results of a reputable poll run by Washington Post-ABC News:

Do you think (the United States should keep its military forces in Iraq until civil order is restored there, even if that means continued U.S. military casualties); OR, do you think (the United States should withdraw its military forces from Iraq in order to avoid further U.S. military casualties, even if that means civil order is not restored there)?

             Keep forces   Withdraw forces   No opinion
2/25/07          42              56               2
1/19/07          46              52               3
12/11/06         48              48               4

Polls of course are just measures of public opinion but it's personally nice for me to see that the average American holding what I view as the right position on the most important political issue of the day.