Tuesday, July 17, 2007

TPM: the polls in WW II

TPM, for the second time, deflates the theory that a lack of popular support for Bush somehow resembles a mythical lack of support for Roosevelt ...

Talking Points Memo | Polls

...The key point is that many polls were taken during the war. And approval of the president's conduct of the war, understanding and belief in the goals of the war and other similar measurements all remained constant at very high levels or in some cases actually went up. One key data point you can see on the chart is the number of Americans will to make peace with Hitler -- that is, an negotiated end to the war rather than the unconditional surrender which was a key allied war demand. The number was under 10% for most of 1942 and 1943. Then it briefly surged up to just over 20% in early 1944 (roughly the time of the invasion of Italy) before falling back down to about 15% for duration of the war in Europe...

I like the historical aspects of this most of all. BTW, TPM has moved to a proper blog format, and it's a great improvement.

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