Democrats Oppose the War ...

... but do they even want us to win?

There is an evil, cancerous idea amongst those on the Left™ against the war in Iraq, an idea that conservatives (even those who might oppose the war) don't share. Many liberals want us to lose the war. There are probably several reasons why, but the biggest must be that; if we should win, then their ideological opposition to the war might be delegitimized and President Bush at least partially vindicated.

The most recent Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll of registered voters showed that only 51% of Democrats want the President's plan to succeed and 31% of Democrats want it to fail. Better to have us lose, American soldiers dead, and the Country placed in grave danger than to allow us to win a war.

David Reinhard at The Oregonian (hardly a bastion of Conservatism) has something to say about this, THE WAR AT HOME

Anecdotal evidence, yes, but recently some poll results confirmed this anecdotal evidence. The most recent Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll of registered voters' views was ho-hum in many respects. Bush's approval rating is abysmal, and a solid majority -- 59 percent -- opposes his plan to send more troops to Iraq. But the pollsters probed further and asked respondents if they personally wanted Bush's plan to succeed.

The results were astonishing. Overall, 63 percent of those surveyed said they wanted the plan to succeed. But 22 percent did not. (Another 15 percent didn't know.) American men and women are going off to fight, and perhaps die, and more than one out of five voters wants them to fail. Sorry, this tells us more about their cankered souls than about the war itself. [and they take pride in their "courageous" opinions! +Photi]

Look beneath the overall breakdown and it becomes clear why Democratic lawmakers sat on their hands Tuesday night when Bush talked about the pursuit of victory in Iraq. According to the Fox/Opinion Dynamics poll, only 51 percent of all Democrats want Bush's new plan to succeed. And a full 34 percent of Democrats do not want it to succeed.

That's not 34 percent of Democrats who oppose to the plan or think the plan will not succeed. That's 34 percent of Democrats who root for failure. That's the anti-war, anti-victory base that Democrats on Capitol Hill worry about.

We are in big trouble.