In claiming Iraq war isn't unpopular, Coulter expressed her distrust of current Iraq polling -- after citing 2002 Iraq polling

Summary: On CNBC's Kudlow & Company, Ann Coulter objected to host Lawrence Kudlow's assertion that the Iraq war is widely unpopular, claiming: "All objective evidence is that it isn't." Coulter cited the "[v]ast support for the war" shown in polling from "throughout 2002 and before we went in." However, Coulter then dismissed current polling demonstrating the war's unpopularity.

Appearing on the August 11 edition of CNBC's Kudlow & Company, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter objected to host Lawrence Kudlow's acknowledgement that the Iraq war is widely unpopular with the American public, claiming: "All objective evidence is that it isn't." Coulter cited the "[v]ast support for the war" shown in polling from "throughout 2002 and before we went in." However, Coulter then dismissed the current polling demonstrating the war's unpopularity, saying: "I think a show of Democratic hands in the House and Senate is more representative than CBS News calling up a thousand alleged voters." The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 59 percent of Americans do not think the Iraq war was worth fighting, compared with 39 percent who do -- making the war very unpopular.

But even by Coulter's barometer -- "a show of Democratic hands in the House and Senate" -- the war is still extraordinarily unpopular. All but six Democratic senators voted for Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and Sen. Jack Reed's (D-RI) nonbinding amendment calling for "the beginning of a phased redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of the year."

Coulter appeared on the program with Democratic strategist David Sirota to discuss the potential impact of Iraq and the "war on terror" on the 2006 elections. Sirota noted that the ABC News/Washington Post poll also indicated that more Americans now trust Democrats over Republicans on matters regarding terrorism.

From the August 11 edition of Kudlow & Company:

KUDLOW: So, Ann, it's your response. That's kind of a head-on discussion. I think he called you an ayatollah. That might not be all bad. What's your response to that?

COULTER: Right. The Democrats' response to worldwide Islamic fascism is to attack Ann Coulter. But if I could take issue with you on something, Larry, I mean everyone just keeps saying now how the war in Iraq is unpopular, unpopular. Well, the Democrats have been telling us that since before we went into the war. All objective evidence is that it isn't. Certainly the polls leading into the war --

SIROTA: Objective evidence like the poll this week?

COULTER: -- when they were being -- told us that the war was unpopular -- vast support for the war throughout 2002 and before we went in. The Democrats, of course, many of them voted -- a majority -- to approve war with Iraq, and continued to support funding for it, and continued to vote against withdrawing troops. I think a show of Democratic hands in the House and Senate is more representative than CBS News calling up a thousand alleged voters. This is just one of these shibboleths that gets repeated so much that people just come to believe it.

—S.S.M.