More polls, Repub smear has backfired

NBC has a poll out today. It was finished Monday so it does not include any fallout from teh recent prison guard scandal. The poll shows Bush at 46 and Kerry at 42. That's about in line with other recent polling. However, there was an interesting statistic offered with regards to the whole war record thing...

Administration officials and Republican groups tried to raise doubts about the credibility of one of the three Purple Heart decorations that Kerry won for his service in the Navy during the Vietnam War, but the effort appears to have backfired. Kerry, who until then had remained largely silent about Bush’s service in a domestic Air National Guard posting during the war, began reviving questions about whether the president had used his family’s political connections to avoid seeing combat in Vietnam.

The poll found that despite Republicans’ questions, 77 percent of Americans believe Kerry served honorably in the military. In contrast, about half, 49 percent, felt Bush’s service was honorable, while about a third, 34 percent, were willing to characterize it as not honorable.

You read it here first a week ago.