By most accounts, conditions on the ground in Iraq, particularly in Baghdad, have improved noticeably over the past two months. There's disagreement on why but the improvement is pretty well accepted.
The outlook on the war among the American people has certainly picked up. A Pew Research poll found that 48% now believe the war is going fairly well compared to just 30% last February. Yet this growing confidence hasn't translated into improved support for either the war or for George w. Bush.
The percentage of Americans who want their troops out soon has held at 54% compared to 53% last February. It was telling that the percentage of Americans who still believe the Iraq war will wind up poorly hasn't changed at all. The latest figures from Pew shows Bush's approval rating has actually fallen a few points to 30%. Probably the economy and subprime mortgage meltdown have offset any extra support Bush might have hoped for from Iraq.
The numbers seem to suggest that a lot of Americans made their minds up about this war some time ago and improvements now are too little, too late to change their minds.
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