GOP Voters Still Back Iraq Invasion
CBS News Poll Shows Republican Voters Still Support Going To War, Even If They Think It's Going Poorly

Most Americans think the Iraq war is going badly - two-thirds say so in the latest CBS News/New York Times Poll - and for most, the bad results they see now also mean the decision to go war was wrong in the first place.

That connection doesn't hold for Republicans, though: They tend to call the war the right thing no matter how they see it going. That's not just loyalty to President Bush - many in his party do in fact question how he is handling Iraq now - but it's also because of their views on how best to fight terrorism; their still-salient memories of Saddam Hussein; and their willingness to give the administration credit for going after perceived threats, past and present.

53% of Republicans think the war in Iraq is going well.

73% of Republicans support the war by calling it the right thing to have done.

21% of Independents who see things going badly call the decision the right thing to do.

15% of Democrats who think it's going badly (nearly all of them) say the same.

There were hints of this Saddam-centered calculus even early in the war, too. In the summer of 2003, when Iraq's supposed cache of weapons of mass destruction had still failed to turn up, most Republicans said it didn't matter to them. They told us that the war would still have been worth it if there were no weapons - because, they volunteered when asked why, Saddam was out of power. (Most Democrats, by comparison, said it did matter.)

Dumbazz's