Waterboard Abdulmutallab!

That’s what voters say, according to today’s Rasmussen survey:

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of U.S. voters say waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques should be used to gain information from the terrorist who attempted to bomb an airliner on Christmas Day.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 30% oppose the use of such techniques, and another 12% are not sure.

There’s this, too:

Seventy-one percent (71%) of all voters think the attempt by the Nigerian Muslim to blow up the airliner as it landed in Detroit should be investigated by military authorities as a terrorist act. Only 22% say it should be handled by civilian authorities as a criminal act, as is currently the case.

My conclusion: the debate is over, and Dick Cheney won it.
PAUL adds: I would waterboard the guy only as a last resort. Does that make me a moderate on this issue?
JOHN responds: Bear in mind that the poll question referred to “waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques.” I believe that in all three instances where waterboarding has been used, it was indeed as a last resort after the other methods had been tried. No doubt the same would hold for Mr. Abdulmatallab were waterboarding, or any other effective interrogation technique, still in use. So, hey–we’re both moderates, as is Dick Cheney!

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