Posted 1:13 PM by Robert

It's All In How You Tell Them

The Los Angeles Times features a curious front-page article based on its own new poll under the headline: Clarke's Charges Gain Acceptance and leading with the assertion: Most Americans accept Richard Clarke's key criticisms of President Bush's anti-terrorism record.

But the Times' poll's formulation of Mr. Clarke's "key criticisms" is peculiar, to say the least.

Richard Clarke, the Bush administration's former counter terrorism chief recently wrote a book which is critical of how the Bush administration has handled the threat of terrorism. Here are some statements that have been made by both Clarke and the Bush administration -- do you agree or disagree with the next four statements. (IF AGREE OR DISAGREE) Do you(agree/disagree) strongly or only somewhat?

Q22. "President Bush failed to take the threat of terrorism seriously enough before the September 11, 2001 Al Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon."

Q23. "President Bush was more focused on attacking Iraq than dealing with terrorism as his top priority."

Are these Richard Clarke's key criticisms of President Bush's anti-terrorism record? Well, OpinionJournal and liberal commenter Fred Kaplan agree that Clarke's top and most controversial criticism of the Bush Administration is that the top priority given to terrorism by the Clinton administration was reduced by the incoming Bush administration. This point is not reflected in the Times poll at all.

Times poll Q22 has always been obvious, as OpinionJournal notes [UPDATE: And again notes today.], and the Bush Administration has never denied it - although they like to avoid this verbal formulation. Indeed, the Bush Administration position has always been that whatever the level of care was prior to 9-11, a lot more should objectively have been done - and should be done in the future. For example, the Bush administration is not now denying that the US invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, formed the Department of Homeland Security and got the Patriot Act passed after 9-11, not before 9-11.

But Richard Clarke is saying a lot more than what is reflected in Q22. He is saying that the Bush Administration had enough intelligence and actual warning so that it could have and should have taken meaningful action against al Qaida - action that might reasonably have prevented 9-11. Mr. Clarke even goes so far as to claim that he had expressly urged just the right actions, but was ignored. Perhaps the public will eventually buy that nonsense, but there is no evidence in the Times poll that has happened so far.

Times poll Q23 - "President Bush was more focused on attacking Iraq than dealing with terrorism as his top priority" - is embarrassing vague and tendentious, and also does not appear to reflect Richard Clarke's criticism accurately. As OpinionJournal and Mr. Kaplan again seem to agree, Mr. Clarke is advancing the standard liberal position that the invasion of Iraq is now - and at all times following 9-11 has been - a distraction from the war on terror that has impeded the war on terror. Q23 doesn't ask that at all. Q23 asks how Iraq and the general war on terror were prioritized by the President prior to 9-11, while tendentiously implying that the two as separable.

Having misconstrued its own poll, the Times is then flabbergasted to find that 58% agree that "Richard Clarke's book is politically motivated and released at this time to impact the presidential election"), 59% agree that Bush's national defense and anti-terrorism policies had made the country more secure (a figure virtually unchanged since November) and that the President's overall approval rating stands at 51%, with 44% disapproving. The Times finds some solace in the poll finding that 55% said the country was on the wrong track. However, on this count, it's worth looking at a somewhat broader trend:

Poll....................................................Right Track......................................Wrong Track.................Spread
Quinnipiac 3/16 - 3/22..................................48%...............................................51%...........................-3%
Democracy Corps 3/16 - 3/21.......................42%...............................................50%......................... - 8%
CBS News/NYT 3/10-3/14.............................38%................................................54%........................- 16%
Gallup 3/8- 3/11...........................................39%................................................60%........................ - 21%
NBC/WSJ 3/6- 3/8.........................................41%................................................49%..........................- 8%
AP/Ipsos 3/1-3/3..........................................35%................................................60%........................ - 25%

Of course, given the hilarious recent history of LA Times polls generally, maybe the Times reporter was right not to take the actual poll questions very seriously.