Friday, October 05, 2007
The American people have clearly spent a great deal of time thinking about Iran and President Ahmadinejad.
Overall, 72% followed news stories about his visit last week to the U.S. closely. Only 1% said he was an ally of the United States and a majority (51%) called his nation an enemy.
Two thirds agreed that New York City was right to deny him access to Ground Zero and 62% said that Iran sponsors terrorism against the U.S.
Given these findings, it should not be surprising that voters divided evenly earlier in the year (40%-40%) over whether the U.S. should use military force to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
In keeping with these findings, over half said that a war with Iran was very or somewhat likely within the next year.
This strongly suggests that the electorate fully wants and expects the Presidential candidates to maintain a hawkish posture toward Iran during the campaign. Indeed. Rasmussen polling in 2006 revealed that the American people see Iran as the greatest national security threat facing the country.
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