An ABC News/Washington Post poll now says:
Most Americans believe President Bush either lied or deliberately exaggerated evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction in order to justify war, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Barely half — 52 percent — now believe Bush is “honest and trustworthy,” down seven points since late October and his worst showing since the question was first asked in March 1999. At his best, in the summer of 2002, Bush was viewed as honest by 71 percent. The survey found that while nearly seven in 10 think Bush “honestly believed” Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, 54 percent thought Bush exaggerated or lied about pre-war intelligence.
… In a head-to-head matchup, Kerry beat Bush, 52 percent to 43 percent, among registered voters polled by the Post.
… Bush’s rating on handling the economy stood at 44 percent, down 7 percentage points, with nearly half of the public saying they are worse off now than they were three years ago when Bush became president. Six in 10 disapprove of the job Bush is doing creating jobs. On education, 47 percent said they approve of the job Bush is doing, down 8 points from January. And his handling of health care also has fallen.
But the president’s declining ratings related to Iraq were most striking. Approval of his handling of the situation there has fallen to 47 percent, down eight points in the past three weeks.
All I can say to those people who are changing their minds is, “what rock have you been hiding under all this time? And welcome to reality.”
In his recent speech, President Bush said, �We’re helping former Soviet states find productive employment for former weapons scientists.� Bush refers to Defense Enterprise Fund (DEF) is a venture capital fund financed by the US Congress. DEF�s task was to convert former Soviet producers of WMD. According to DoD Audit, DEF spent half of its grant on itself, which is twenty five times the industry average. As far as DEF�s investment portfolio of $30M, $20M disappeared from it. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (�DTRA�) maintains a DEF-related webpage. This page used to state that the number of former Soviet WMD scientists converted by DEF to peaceful pursuits was 3370. I questioned this figure in my letters to DTRA, and DTRA reduced this figure to 1250, which is a 66% reduction. But the real figure is no more than 200 Russian scientists. DEF was closed as of December 31, 2003, its entire $67M grant lost, and nobody was punished, except the whistleblower. http://nunn-lugar.com/def/