Poll: Most feel civil liberties not harmed by war on terror

(CNN) — Most Americans do not believe the Bush administration has gone too far in restricting civil liberties as part of the war on terror, a new CNN poll released Thursday suggests.

While 39 percent of the 1,013 poll respondents said the Bush administration has gone too far, 34 percent said they believe the administration has been about right on the restrictions, according to the Opinion Research Corp. survey. Another 25 percent said the administration has not gone far enough.

Asked whether Bush has more power than any other U.S. president, 65 percent of poll respondents said no. Thirty-three percent said yes. Of those who said yes, a quarter said that was bad for the country. (View poll results)

Hmmm….almost 60 percent don’t think the administration has gone too far?…..I wonder why this poll had such different results than the ACLU poll? I guess it depends on who you ask and how you ask the questions.

For example, use vauge, over-simplified and misleading questions like:

In thinking about who you might vote for this year for Congress and Senate, are you more likely to vote for a candidate who approves of the following measures to help the country fight terrorism or a more likely to vote for a candidate who disapproves of them:

The government opening and reading Americans’ mail and e-mails without telling them.

The government secretly examining bank records of Americans without a court warrant.

Allowing government agents to search people’s homes without telling them.

Recently a federal court has ruled that the government’s secret program of eavesdropping on American citizens without getting a warrant violated the law and the U.S. Constitution. What do you think should happen next?

Or you could use straight questions like CNN did and get straight answers. I wonder what the ACLU thinks of this poll. Its probably just a fluke. Right?

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