53% to 36%

The Times Record breaks some news late on a Friday afternoon: According to a new poll commissioned by Win Without War, a majority of Maine likely voters want an Iraq timetable.

It's usually easy to dismiss a poll like this as "partisan." But in this case, the question seems to have been crafted neutrally, without loaded words:

The poll, conducted by Lake Research Partners, took place between April 9 and 11 and covered 401 "likely" Maine voters. They were asked if the United States should or should not set a timetable for withdrawal of troops from Iraq that would see most troops out within a year's time. Fifty-three percent voted "should" and 36 percent "should not."

Keep in mind: If troops continue to be surged into Baghdad over the next few months--an escalationist approach that Sen. Collins enabled as recently as yesterday--meeting such a withdrawal timetable will be virtually impossible.

To put it another way, only about one in three Maine voters backs the Collins approach.