Americans Support Striking Islamic Militants, Poll Shows

By Janet Hook 

Voters by a wide margin support President Barack Obama's decision to strike the militant group Islamic State, but they have less confidence that his plans will succeed, a new poll finds.

The Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Annenberg Survey, taken in the days after Mr. Obama's prime-time address Wednesday on confronting the militant group, found that 62% of voters supported the president's decision to take action. But nearly 70% saw low odds of success.

The White House had hoped that Mr. Obama's televised address would quell concerns that the administration had yet to develop a strategy for confronting Islamic State, which has seized territory in Iraq and Syria and has beheaded two U.S. journalists.

The group released a video Saturday that it said showed the beheading of a British aid worker.

On Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry said leading Arab states have pledged to support U.S. military operations, including potentially launching joint airstrikes on targets in Syria and Iraq.

In the new survey, 28% of voters had a "great deal" or "quite a bit" of confidence that the U.S. would accomplish the goals Mr. Obama outlined in his speech of degrading and eliminating the threat posed by Islamic State.

By contrast, 68% were skeptical of the plans, including 37% who said they had "just some" confidence that Mr. Obama's goals would be met, and 31% who said they had "very little" confidence.

"The president has made his case to the American public and, like other presidents who faced war and peace issues, support usually follows," said Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who helped conduct the survey. "The difference in this military encounter is that, right out of the box, Americans are skeptical this will work."

The survey of 554 registered voters was taken Sept. 11-13, before news emerged of the apparent beheading of British aid worker David Haines. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.5 percentage points. It was conducted in conjunction with the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

A separate Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey, also released Sunday, found that Mr. Obama's nationally televised speech yielded little change in public opinion on U.S. military action, and it didn't change many people's minds about the president's leadership or his handling of foreign policy.

Before the speech, 65% of voters interviewed said it was in the U.S. interest to attack Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS and ISIL.

After the speech, 68% of the same voters said military action against the group in Iraq and Syria was in the national interest.

The Journal/NBC News survey was based on interviews with 207 voters before the speech, who were then re-interviewed after Mr. Obama's Wednesday night address. It was conducted by the polling firms of Democrat Fred Yang and Republican Bill McInturff.

Mr. Obama's speech had a broad audience: 62% in the new Journal/NBC survey had watched it or heard about it in the news.

Of those who watched or heard about the speech, 26% said they came away with a more favorable opinion of the president, while 20% said the speech left them with a less-favorable view. More than half 53% said the speech didn't change their opinion of Mr. Obama.

Among the full group interviewed, including both people who watched or heard about the speech and those who didn't, some 34% said they approved of Mr. Obama's handling of foreign policy, and 62% said they disapproved.

That was essentially unchanged from before the speech.

Similarly, opinions of Mr. Obama's overall job performance were essentially unchanged after the speech.

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