Iraqi Casualties Unlikely to Hurt Bush Election

[Sticky]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraq policy is only a low priority for American voters and the mounting civilian casualty toll there is unlikely to damage President Bush's re-election chances, political analysts and pollsters say.

"If a few hundred or even a few thousand Iraqis get killed, the average American citizen doesn't see that as relevant to them," said University of Iowa political scientist and pollster Arthur Miller.

In the latest in a string of devastating attacks, at least 171 Iraqis were killed this week while worshiping at holy Shi'ite Muslim shrines.

Most U.S. newspapers ran the news on the front page but it was overshadowed by the day's top story -- Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry's emergence as the Democratic presidential nominee.
American University historian Allan Lichtman commented: "Most Americans have no clue how many Iraqis have died during this war and its aftermath and don't seem anxious to find out. It was the same during the Vietnam War. If it had been 171 Americans killed, you can just imagine the hue and cry there would have been all over the land

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=4499004

[meg]

1. Oh sure

No one has notices the casualties or the billions in cost or the lack of WMD or the lies. Move along, nothing to see here.