The public force is strong with Darth; with the Lightworker, not so much

Via Allahpundit at Hot Air comes definitive evidence, courtesy of the liberal Pew polling organization, that former Vice President Dick Cheney has won the debate against President Obama over enhanced interrogation. For the first time since Pew began such polling, a majority of the American public believes that torture is often or sometimes justified. Only 25% of Americans believe it is never justified, which would be those who identify themselves as liberal in other polls (21%) plus a small fraction of independents. These folks are usually called professors. Since carefully controlled and circumscribed enhanced interrogations of the type conducted by the CIA are not torture by definition or in practice, public support for those procedures likely is even higher. This distinction between waterboarding or rude interrogations and real torture is not lost on the American people (or al Qaeda), though it seems not to register with members of, especially, the legal academy.

Support for torture is up by 9% since Obama took office, most of that since he and his administration began the publicized debate with ol’ Vice. All one has to do is watch the two and hear their arguments. In matters of national security, whom would one rather see in charge, Barack Obama or Dick Cheney? For most Americans the choice is clear. It’s one thing to listen to Obama’s feel-good rhetoric when the serious adults are still in charge. It’s quite another when the Candyman is actually in charge. Obama is an inspiring head of state figure. A war chief? Not at all.

More interesting is that support for torture has risen most dramatically among Democrats (+18%) and independents (+9%). This change in attitude parallels an increased public perception that Mr. Obama is not tough enough in foreign relations. Again, most of that change is due to Democrats and Independents souring on the President. Mr. Obama’s apology tours, his softness towards Iran, and his delay in formulating an Afghanistan policy are beginning to cement an impression of the President in the mind of the public.

Perhaps the President’s deflationary polling and the perception of weakness is related to his Afghanistan policy. The timetable for withdrawal of forces announced by the President is seen overwhelmingly negatively by the American public.