COMMENCE POUNDING OF HEAD ON THE TABLE

No one ever went broke misunderestimating the intelligence of the American people.

WASHINGTON - Seven in 10 people in a poll say the Bush administration implied that Iraq and its leader Saddam Hussein were involved in the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States.

Okay, we're doing alright so far...

And a majority, 52 percent, say they believe the United States has found clear evidence in Iraq that Saddam was working closely with the al-Qaida terrorist organization.

pound! pound! pound!

Actually, just about all of the other numbers in the UM poll are much less upsetting -- the percentage of Americans who think we've found WMD has dropped by one third, and 64% of Americans think the UN should have a bigger role in post-war Iraq. (60+ post-USS Lincoln casualties will do that)

Nevertheless, the fact that more than half of Americans believe that something objectively false is true is distressing. The media, and heck, the government are not doing their job on this one. The issue of Saddam's 9/11 or Al Qaeda connections is not an issue of conservative vs liberal, but of accurate vs inaccurate. The illusion of a connection is the only thing (short of the unlikely emergence of an Iraqi Thomas Jefferson) that's holding Dubya's house of cards together on this one. It supports the atmosphere of fear, which is really the only objective difference between W's reelection chances and those of his father. But if it falls, he falls. Still, a happy ending in Iraq doesn't appear to be anywhere in sight...