First lady Laura Bush said she understands the public's doubts.
"Of course, we know why people are upset right now. We've just seen pictures on television and we're losing soldiers in Iraq," she said in a telephone interview, adding that Bush's overall standing has not been hurt "because they think the president is doing a real good job facing these real tough times."
"That's what they've seen since Sept. 11," she said.
America is a conflicted nation. The USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll showed that a majority of voters think going to war in Iraq wasn't worth it. The same percentage don't think it was a mistake to send troops.
An overwhelming percentage of voters said they are troubled by the prisoner abuses, but believe the cases are isolated. Far fewer lay a "great deal" of blame on Bush (22 percent) and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (26 percent) than upon the military officers who supervised the soldiers (60 percent) and the soldiers themselves (65 percent).
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