As a general matter, the Pew Research Center probably produces the best publicly available polls-they're methodologically sound, carefully executed, and often ask better questions than other organizations exploring the same topics. But I have a real problem with this one, which comes from a new report released today.
When you ask, "Do you think Barack Obama is too tough, not tough enough or about right in his approach to foreign policy and national security issues?", you're framing foreign policy and national security as a matter of toughness. While in some instances we use "tough" with a negative connotation-"He's too tough on his kids"-the vast majority of time, we think of being "tough" as a positive. I wouldn't even describe the foreign policy beliefs of those who fetishize "toughness" as being too tough. Are John McCain's ideas about foreign policy "too tough"? No, they're juvenile and stupid.
So if you're going to ask a question like this, you at least ought to offer an alternative framing as well, like: "Do you think Barack Obama is too thoughtful, not thoughtful enough, or about right in his approach to foreign policy and national security issues?" That's no more a leading question than asking whether he's tough enough.
