Making the NY Times Proud

Not to be outdone by their brethren on the east coast, the Minneapolis Star Tribune proves that they can spin poll results with the best of them in their ongoing opposition to military action against Iraq. Apparently, a plethora of editorials and letters to the editors in the paper just haven't been enough to convince the majority of Minnesotans to oppose a pre-emptive attack. The results of a poll published on Sunday would seem to indicate rather substantial support for President Bush's position on Iraq but that's not the way the Strib chose to report it. According to the poll 54% of Minnesotans think the US should attack Iraq, while 32% do not, and 14% have no opinion. 75% believe that the president should get congressional approval before an attack, 19% do not think it necessary, and 6% have no opinion. The Strib chose to interpret these numbers this way:

A slim majority of Minnesotans favor military action against Iraq, but three out of four said President Bush should first get congressional approval, according to a new poll.

While 54% may be a slim majority of the total respondents it is a clear majority of those who offered an opinion on the matter. The 54% in favor of military action translates into 63% of those who hold an opinion. Apparently the Strib groups the 14% with no opinion in with those opposed when arriving at the "slim majority" characterization. Using that logic it would be just as easy to say that less than one third of Minnesotans oppose military action against Iraq.

The truly surprising and heartening results of the poll are in Bush's approval numbers. In a state that has not gone for a Republican presidential candidate in thirty years Bush has an overall approval rating of 64%. While the paper is quick to point out that this is down from last November it still is a very solid number for GW. On the war on terrorism world wide 75% of Minnesotans approve of Bush's actions and perhaps most shocking of all 85% approve of the administration's actions to fight terrorism on the domestic front. This despite the best efforts of the Star Tribune to portray John Ashcroft as a Constitution shredding Nazi slightly to the right of Attila the Hun.