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11 January 2006

New Poll - Americans on Wiretapping

A new Washington Post poll found that 51 percent of Americans consider the interception of telephone and email communications without court approval an acceptable way for the government to investigate terrorism. Of course, when broken down by party lines, 75 percent of Republicans but only 37 percent of Democrats find the wiretapping acceptable.

A link to the poll results is available on the Washington Post homepage (www.washingtonpost.com).

Posted by Traci Burch at January 11, 2006 5:09 PM

Comments

A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll shows similar results. Check out:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/11/poll.wiretaps/index.html

If you click on the "View some of the poll results" link in the text of the story, you'll see that while Americans are split on the wiretapping issue, the public has more skeptical of the administration's approach to civil liberties over time. In a 2003 poll, 28% of respondents thought the administration has "gone too far" in restricting liberties in order to fight terrorism. Today, 38% say that Bush has gone too far.

However, will this issue be salient enough to have an impact on the 2006 or 2008 elections? If you continue to click through the "View some of the poll results" pop-up window, you see that only 29% of respondents have been following the wiretapping story "very closely." 25% have followed it "not too closely" or "not at all."

Posted by: Casey Klofstad at January 12, 2006 9:50 AM

Another poll came out earlier this week on the wiretapping issue.

According to a Zogby release, a recent poll they conducted for AfterDowningStreet.org finds that "52 percent of respondents agreed with the statement: 'If President Bush wiretapped American citizens without the approval of a judge, do you agree or disagree that Congress should consider holding him accountable through impeachment.'" A full copy of the press release from Zogby is posted online at: http://www.zogby.com/Soundbites/ReadClips.dbm?ID=12528

While these findings suggest that the wiretapping issue might be a salient one, the AAPOR listserv has been pretty critical of this finding. Many have commented that the wording of the impeachment question is vague and maybe even biased. Furthermore, AfterDowningStreet.org is not what we would consider an unbiased client. According to their website, "After Downing Street is a coalition working to expose the lies that launched the war and to hold accountable its architects, including through censure and impeachment."

This all said, like the CNN poll I commented on earlier this new Zogby poll suggest that at the very least the public is becoming more critical of the Bush administration. According to the Zogby release, "The new Zogby poll shows a major shift in support for Bush's impeachment since June 2005. In a Zogby poll conducted June 27-29, 2005 of 905 likely voters, 42 percent agreed and 50 percent disagreed with the identical statement asked about in this recent polling."

Posted by: Casey Klofstad at January 19, 2006 9:33 AM