Polls Won't Affect Iraq Policy, White House Says

WASHINGTON — With a one-word comment — "So?" — Vice President Dick Cheney has reignited the debate about whether the White House cares that most Americans do not support the war in Iraq.

The comment came in Amman, Jordan during an interview with ABC's Martha Raddatz, who prefaced a question to Cheney by saying, "Two-thirds of Americans say it's not worth fighting."

"So?" Cheney interjected.

"So?" replied Raddatz. "You don't care what the American people think?"

"No," said Cheney. "I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls."

Cheney continued with standard White House rhetoric about improving conditions in Iraq and the need for steady leadership.

On Thursday, it fell to White House press secretary Dana Perino to put Cheney's comments into perspective. Bush and Cheney, she said, don't "chase popularity polls."

"And they understand that people aren't necessarily going to agree with their decisions," she said.

"I think what he means," Perino said of Cheney's remark, "is that regardless of how bad it could get in terms of your popularity rating, you can't make decisions based on chasing popularity."

On Wednesday — the day he gave his speech marking the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq — Bush offered his own version of Cheney's "So?," albeit at greater length and with more emotion. It came when an Armed Forces Network interviewer asked about his meetings with survivors of military personnel killed in the war.

"I try to get them to talk about their loved one," Bush said. "I want to learn about each individual person who sacrificed, what they were like, what their interests were, and a lot of times the families love sharing their stories with the commander-in-chief."

"And to a person, nearly, I have been told that whatever you do, Mr. President, complete this job ... and basically what they're saying is, don't let politics, don't let the Gallup Poll, don't let a focus group cause you to make a decision that is not in the best interests of our country and our military," Bush said. "And I assure them that they don't have to worry about that about George W. Bush."

Everyone in the administration, Perino said Thursday, "would like for people to support the president's decisions."

"We realize that that's unrealistic, especially in a time of war, and in particular this war," she added.

"But what the president has said is that, while people might not like the decisions that he makes, he has to do what he thinks is right for the country. And he cannot try to chase an opinion poll and try to make things better that way."

Towson University Professor Martha Kumar, author of several books about presidential communications, said that "all presidents claim distance from the polls, though all keep a close eye on them."

"No president — or vice president for that matter — can afford to be seen as ignoring what the public feels and wants, especially when the public's view is fairly uniform and strongly held," Kumar said. "That is the case with the Iraq war."

The challenge for Bush, she said, is convincing people that they are being heard and then explaining the decisions.

"If listening has been a weak point of this administration, so too has explanation," Kumar said.