Support the (Extended) Surge

Via The Weekly Standard, a USA Today/Gallup poll finds support for Obama’s “extended surge” in Afghanistan:

A narrow majority of Americans support President Obama’s revamped strategy on Afghanistan, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Wednesday, but there are broad concerns that the costs of the war will sap the government’s ability to address problems facing the nation at home.

Though the results underscore a significant selling job ahead for the White House, they also show a willingness by Democratic voters to back Obama despite their reservations about the war.

That’s a 51-percent majority for an approach to a war that’s faced sliding poll numbers for weeks. According to the poll, 56 percent of Republicans and an astounding 58 percent of Democrats back the surge. A late-November poll from the same organization found 57 percent of Democrats backed the beginning of a withdrawal from Afghanistan. Can that swing be attributed just to a faith in Obama, or is there something deeper happening?