Americans Realistic About Terror

The latest Fox News poll contains good news for the administration. By a 55% to 33% margin, respondents say “the U.S. and its allies are winning the war against terrorism.” If there is a single positive indicator for President Bush’s re-election, that’s it.
Other results show that the American people are realistic about the war on terror; much more so, not surprisingly, than most pundits. Substantial numbers of respondents think it likely that there are terrorists living in their towns, and considerable numbers (though far from a majority) think their lives or their families’ lives are in danger from terrorists. And only 7% say the war against terror will last only another one to two years; 85% say three years or longer. The largest percentage, 34%, say the war will last more than ten years.
If these data are reliable, they suggest there is only a limited market for the Democrats’ message that 1) the war on terror isn’t important, or 2) the war is going badly, or 3) it should have been over by now.