CNN released a new poll today gauging support for military action in Libya, and the results are not entirely coherent.
Apparently 70% of Americans support the no-fly-zone, and 77% approve of getting rid of Gaddaffi, but when it comes to approval of how the president has handled the situation, the numbers dip wildly.
Sixty-three percent of Republicans disapprove of Obama's handling of Libya, to 27 percent who approve. Seventy-six percent of Tea Party "supporters" disapprove of Obama's handling of it. But 73 percent of Tea Partiers and 78 percent of Republicans support the NFZ -- they're by far the biggest supporters of the strategy.
So Republican support of the no-fly-zone and disapproval of how it's being handled are virtually equal.
Personally I think they're just upset because they have effectively lost the national-security debate and they're running out of things to campaign on. National-security and then Senator Obama's secret-Muslim heritage where all they had to run on in 2008. They certainly do not have an economic track record they can run a national campaign on, so all they are left with, now that they have lost national-security, is secret-Muslim heritage. I can only imagine how enraged they will become if the action in Libya turns out to be successful.
via Dave Weigel
Adding... No, I wouldn't say Libya has anything to do with our direct national-security, but when it comes to the national discourse, it may as well because the American people and the Media seem to judge your national-security cred based on who you have bombed.