What is interesting here is that the NYTimes has come out with it's own version of the NSA wiretapping Poll, and with it's best effort, the numbers are more in the Dem's favour.

But what is most worth watching is just how much traction it will generate. It is a fact that the reputation of the Old Gray Bitty has been hurt, and it is solely due to it's own bias. Undoubedly the Left will trumpet it, as will the Grizz here, so I thought I would preempt him. But note that the actual questions are not listed here, so it is not possible to take the questions apart and analyze them.

I believe that this poll, just in time for the weekend shows, will not make a dent in the perception of the citizens. I could be wrong, but I don't think so. the NYTimes has cried "wolf" so many times that people tend not to believe them any longer, and with good reason.

New Poll Finds Mixed Support for Wiretaps
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JANET ELDER

Americans are willing to tolerate eavesdropping without warrants to fight terrorism, but are concerned that the aggressive antiterrorism programs championed by the Bush administration are encroaching on civil liberties, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

In a sign that public opinion about the trade-offs between national security and individual rights is nuanced and remains highly unresolved, responses to questions about the administration's eavesdropping program varied significantly depending on how the questions were worded, underlining the importance of the effort by the White House this week to define the issue on its terms.

The poll, conducted as President Bush defended his surveillance program in the face of criticism from Democrats and some Republicans that it is illegal, found that Americans were willing to give the administration some latitude for its surveillance program if they believed it was intended to protect them. Fifty-three percent of the respondents said they supported eavesdropping without warrants "in order to reduce the threat of terrorism."

The results suggest that Americans' view of the program depends in large part on whether they perceive it as a bulwark in the fight against terrorism, as Mr. Bush has sought to cast it, or as an unnecessary and unwarranted infringement on civil liberties, as critics have said.