Poll: 19% of Dems Think World Better If US Loses Iraq War

Friday's "Hannity and Colmes" featured a discussion of a recently released Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll which found that, when asked the question, "Do you personally think the world would be better off if the United States loses the war in Iraq?" 19 percent of Democrats answered "yes" while 20 percent answered "don't know," leaving only 62 percent who definitely disagreed with the idea that the world might be better off if America lost. By contrast, 87 percent of Republicans and 76 percent of Independents disagreed with the idea that a loss by America might be a good thing for the world. (Transcript follows)

Sean Hannity introduced the discussion with Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway and Democratic strategist/author Doug Schoen, and posed his first question to Schoen: "Doug, 20 percent of your party wants us to lose the war?" Schoen rationalized the numbers, contending that "we don't know what victory is," and that Democrats are "fed up" and "have had enough."

Below is a transcript of the exchange from the Friday October 5 "Hannity and Colmes":

SEAN HANNITY: In a sure sign that liberalism has run amok in this country, the latest Fox News poll shows that Democrats are not only planning for a withdrawal from Iraq, but that one in five actually believe that [the world] would be better off if we lost the war outright. Joining us now to try and make sense of that tragic poll result, Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway, Democratic pollster and author of The Power of the Vote, Doug Schoen, is with us. Doug, 20 percent of your party wants us to lose the war, lose the war?

DOUG SCHOEN, Democratic strategist: Sean, we don't know what victory is. First, it was deposing Saddam, then it was political reconciliation, now it's rooting out terror. A lot of Democrats are fed up with this war. And what that figure says to me is they've had enough, they don't know what our goals are, and they just want out.