TigerHawk

ABC News is reporting the results of a public opinion poll that seems to show that public support for the NSA surveillance program is growing.

President Bush's campaign to convince Americans that the government's eavesdropping program is essential to the war on terrorism has made an impact: Last month people disapproved, 56 percent to 42 percent. Now it's basically 50-50.

Bush has been particularly successful at making his case to core supporters, including Republicans, white evangelicals and suburban men. Support in each category grew more than 10 percentage points in the last month.

This result is probably more interesting for Democrats than Republicans. The utility of the program itself may have been mooted by its disclosure. George W. Bush isn't going to run for office again. The question is, what issues will work for Democrats in 2006 and 2008? Increasingly, the NSA surveillance controversy looks like a political loser for Democrats, insofar as it reinforces the widely-held perception that they are more concerned with procedural niceties than nailing jihadis. Complaining about Bush administration policies may raise money from the base, but it isn't going to win elections. Let's hear what the Democrats would do differently (and if the answer is "Just what Bush did, only with warrants," it proves my point).

ABC News seems to think that support for the program has increased because of the Bush administration's public campaign advocating for it. Probably so, but I wonder whether the "cartoon intifada" hasn't reminded people that we are facing an intrusive, volatile enemy that will not rest until it has forced changes not only in American and European foreign policy toward the Muslim world, but also within the political boundaries of the democratic West. That raises the stakes.