U.S.-Russia Entering Cold War II – TIME Magazine And Voters Agree

The August 4, 2014, issue of TIME Magazine shouts the headline title, “Cold War II – The West is losing Putin’s dangerous game,” a lead story by Simon Schuster. The article explores whether we are in fact heading for another Cold War and, if so, what has occurred to bring it about.

Yet, despite the scathing critique of the Obama foreign policy doctrine, which simply recognizes the growing instability in eastern Europe since the “Russian reset,” former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton is running around telling everyone in interviews that “the reset worked.”

Voters, however, strongly disagree with the top 2016 Democratic presidential hopeful.

A new survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports found that 63 percent of likely voters believe it is at least “somewhat likely” that the United States and Russia will return to a 1950s-like Cold War relationship over the next few years. That’s a startling number, even for those who aren’t particularly fond of Rasmussen polls, because it is up 18 points from 45 percent they measured in March and up an astonishing 27 points from 36 percent in August 2013.

Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, was admonished a mocked by President Obama and an adoring liberal media when he argued that Russia was the most dangerous geopolitical the U.S. had to contend with today. Yet, now, just 29 percent see a Cold War II scenario as unlikely. In fact, nearly as many Americans — 21 percent — say it’s “very likely” the United States and Russia will return to a Cold War relationship, while just 4 percent think it’s “not at all likely.”

Most voters don’t want the United States to provide military assistance to Ukraine to help fight pro-Russian rebels there, but as Rasmussen noted, “perhaps in part because they feel more strongly than ever that the U.S.-Soviet Cold War is beginning to repeat itself.”

It would seem the American people would now take Mr. Romney’s warnings a little more seriously if it was a 2014 campaign rather than a 2012 contest. Mr. Obama’s average approval on foreign policy has tanked since the 2012 presidential election. PPD’s average of polls finds only 36.2 percent approve and 55.2 disapprove.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on July 23-24, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.