Poll: Americans Not Hopeful on Afghanistan

More polling has come in, now from Rasmussen, on American sentiment toward Afghanistan:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 22% expect the situation there to get better, down seven points from a month ago.

The plurality (41%) says things will get worse in the coming months, an increase of two points since the beginning of July. Another 24% say the situation will stay about the same during that time, up from 21% in the previous survey.

None of this entails that the U.S. wants out - like many other NATO members do - but it does suggest a certain worry about the mission. The administration is also finding a tough sell among left-of-center national security analysts and pundits. Michael Cohen, at the Obama-friendly Democracy Arsenal, has been doing yeoman's work cataloging the "Afghanistan Mission Creep" and you're seeing other writers sympathetic to the administration (such as Spencer Ackerman and Matthew Yglesias) voice concerns. Taken together, I think this confirm's Stephen Biddle's analysis that the administration has a very short window of opportunity to show results.

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