CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF POOR LEADERSHIP - AT 7:41 P.M. ET:  New poll numbers reflect America's growing skepticism about the value of winning in Afghanistan, as Andrew Malcolm of the L.A. Times's Top of the Ticket reports:

According to the new ABC News/Washington Post Poll, only 44% now say the war has been worth it, the smallest support percentage in nearly three years. The poll has a margin of error of +/-3.5%.

Once, Obama's war policies were his strongest poll suit (63%). Now, only 45% approve of Obama's handling of Afghanistan; more (48%) don't. His war support among independents, a crucial ingredient in the Democrat's election victory 54 weeks ago, has slipped to 39%.

Support for additional commitments is particularly weak among young voters and women.

Obama, like President Bush before him in both Afghanistan and Iraq, has made a main argument that it's better to fight terrorism over there and deny terrorists safe training and staging havens than endure repeat 9/11 attacks on the homeland.

Ominously, for Obama, however, less than a quarter of Americans now buy that argument. Nearly two-thirds (64%) currently say the risk of terrorism at home is the same whether we continue to fight there or withdraw.

COMMENT:  This is a clear case of poor, indecisive leadership...at the very top.  When Americans see the commander in chief hesitant, when they see no clear commitment from the leader, they understandably become indifferent and hesitant.

Please recall the Biblical quotation, from Corinthians, "For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?" 

Today the trumpet gives a very uncertain sound.  The American people are listening.

November 17, 2009