In a week dominated by headlines of heroes and D-Day celebrations, we suspect President Obama was hoping for a patriotic bump in his ratings... but as The Hill reports [6], people in the United States say President Obama paid too high a price for the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, and largely disapprove of the administration’s handling of the swap, according to a pair of new polls. Only 34% of those polled (by USA Today/ Pew) backed Obama's decision as 'the right thing' but more crucially, it appears the President's ongoing push towards tyranny that is most worrisome as 72% said Obama should have informed Congress before making the deal.
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People in the United States say President Obama paid too high a price for the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, and largely disapprove of the administration’s handling of the swap, according to a pair of new polls.
Some 45 percent of those surveyed in a CBS News poll [8]said they disapprove of the detainee swap, with 37 percent backing the move. A sizable 18 percent remain undecided on the issue.
Those findings are largely echoed by a USA Today / Pew Research poll [9], in which 43 percent of people said Obama should not have made the trade, with just 34 percent backing it as the right thing to do.
But a significant majority — 72 percent — said President Obama should have informed Congress before approving the deal. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have criticized the president for ignoring a legal requirement that Congress is informed 30 days before the transfer of any detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The president freed five Taliban prisoners held at the prison in exchange for Bergdahl.
A majority of those surveyed also said Obama paid too high a price for his release. Of those surveyed, 56 percent say Obama gave up too much while 28 percent said the terms were reasonable. That includes nearly two-thirds — 65 percent — of veterans who said the price was too high.
Veterans in the USA Today survey were also among the most likely to express anger with Bergdahl himself, who is accused of abandoning his post in Afghanistan before his capture by the Taliban. Some 33 percent said they were angry with Bergdahl, while just 6 percent said they sympathized with him.
Overall Obama's approval rating was unchanged on the month as minimum wage pressure in Seattle, student loan bailouts, and immigration handouts trumped any negatives from the Bergdahl swap...