During an appearance on NPR's "Fresh Air," Senator Joe Biden, a possible Democratic presidential contender, claimed that the Senate committee hearings he chaired dramatically changed public opinion about war with Iraq (go to 31:17 in the Real Player clip):
[T]here's a reason why Democrats are so frustrated. We have no organ of government we control, therefore there's nothing that you in the press cover about what we have to say. I can make all the speeches in the world I want. It's not going to get the kind of coverage that would get if in fact they were able to hold three days of serious hearings like I did when I was chairman before the war in Iraq, where close to 70 percent of the American people supported going to war before the hearings began and after the hearings were over it was down below 50 percent.
I assume Biden is referring to the high-profile hearings he held on July 31 and August 1, 2002 (PDF). But I don't see any evidence of a resulting change in public opinion on support for military action:
USA Today/Gallup poll: 61 percent support in June 2002, 58 percent in September.
Fox News poll: 72 percent support in July, 69 percent support in August.
ABC News poll: 72 percent support in March, 69 percent support in August.
In fact, I don't see evidence of a swing from "close to 70 percent" support for military action to "below 50 percent" at any point during the period when he was chairman of Senate Foreign Relations (July 2002-January 2003). Given Biden's reputation as a blowhard and a plagiarizer, you'd think he would be more careful about this kind of self-aggrandizing rhetoric, especially given that he voted in support of the war after the hearings.
If he runs, he'll get Lieberman like numbers. The last sentence is key, he voted for this war when he knew who would be conducting it.
Posted by: greg wirth | February 10, 2006 at 01:29 PM