Solid Support for War, President Bush

Welcome back, Deacon. I’m back in Alaska again after a blissful week and a half at home. Hence the late-night posts.
The latest ABC/Washington Post poll is out. Based on interviews conducted last night, it shows–not surprisingly–that Americans think the war is going well, and a solid majority supports both the war and President Bush. The key findings:
President Bush’s job approval rating is at 71%; even more worrisome for Democrats is that 54% now “strongly” approve of his performance. That’s a strong approval percentage that he hasn’t had since January of last year. Due largely, of course, to the war, but bad news for his potential Democratic opponents.
73% support the decision to go to war in Iraq, 58% “strongly” support it. This percentage actually has wavered hardly at all, notwithstanding the schizophrenic press coverage of the past week.
91% now say the war is going well; this number is up somewhat, although a large majority has always seen the war’s progress positively.
62% say Iraqi resistance has been about what they expected; 17% say it has been weaker, and an equal number say it has been tougher.
Remarkably, public support for the war is sky-high despite what seem to be rather pessimistic expectations about its length. 44% think the war will continue for “months,” 10% for a year or more.
There is only one area where the negative media spin of recent days appears to have had an impact; 33% say our military leaders underestimated Iraqi opposition, while 39% say the Administration did. I would expect these numbers to fall if, as I anticipate, the military phase of the Iraq operation is over in a matter of days.