Re: Re: Re: US opinion polls

[Peter Dorman]

Many thanks, Doug.  There is a big difference, but I would have expected 
more lopsided "oppose" numbers from those who don't see an Al Qaeda 
connection.  Perhaps a later poll would have revealed this.

Peter

Doug Henwood wrote:

Michael Perelman wrote:

Doug Henwood posted data on this to his list.  Maybe he could resend them
here.  There was a striking difference according whether or not people
held the evil Saddam responsible for 9-11 or not.
On Sat, Mar 22, 2003 at 01:13:07PM -0800, Peter Dorman wrote:

 The New York Times presented more polling data today.  One question 
that
 interests me is how opinion is split based on the role of
 disinformation.  Specifically, how do the percentages of those for or
 against the war differ depending on whether respondents believe that
 Iraq was responsible for the 9/11 attacks (i.e. conditional
 probabilities)?  Does anyone on this list have this information, either
 for the present or the recent past?

 > Peter


Yes I've posted quite a bit on this. Here's the latest. Other polls 
tell pretty much the same story. Another stunning factoid: only 17% of 
US respondents could give the correct number of Iraqis among the 9/11 
hijackers (0, of course).

Doug

----

[this is from the director of polling for ABC]

This except from our 1/28/03 ABC News poll analysis may help.

AL QAEDA - Bush's assertion in his speech that Saddam Hussein "aids 
and protects terrorists, including members of Al Qaeda" is one that 
confirms a perception already held by many Americans. Any number of 
polls since Sept. 11, 2001, have shown that most do think Iraq 
supports those terrorists; in this survey, 68 percent say so.

This perception is an important one in fueling support for military 
action, in that such support is premised to a large extent on the 
sense of threat Americans feel from Iraq. Among those who think Iraq 
directly supports Al Qaeda, 73 percent favor taking military action to 
oust Saddam. Among those who don't think he supports Al Qaeda, support 
for military action drops to 45 percent.

9. Do you think Iraq has or has not provided direct support to the Al 
Qaeda terrorist group?
            Provided    Not provided     No
            support       support      opinion
1/28/03        68           17           15

Xtab:                             Military action vs Iraq
                                     Support   Oppose
Provided support to Al Qaeda (68%)     73%       24
Not provided support         (17%)     45        51