Democrats widely criticized the speech. Speaking on CNN, Senator John Kerry accused Bush of creating a “third rationale” for going to war. Kerry said, “The first, of course, was weapons of mass destruction. The second was democracy. And now tonight, it’s to combat the hotbed of terrorism.” Kerry went on to say “But most Americans are aware that the hotbed of terrorism never existed in Iraq until we got there, and it has in fact grown increasingly as we are there.” Meanwhile a new Gallup poll shows that 45 percent of Americans now believe that the United States will never succeed in Iraq.