Here, let me save you some time on every possible poll in the Trump era: The answer is "Republicans voters say they support the Republican thing almost to a person, regardless of how stupid it might be or whether they said the opposite last week. Everyone else in America has put more thought into it." With that in mind:
Fifty-seven percent of Americans approve of the airstrike against Syrian military targets – calling immoral the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons that led to the strike - but most are leery of any military involvement beyond airstrikes, a CBS News poll shows.
This is true, but under those top-line numbers is a rather remarkable discrepancy. While 40 percent of Democratic voters and 52 percent of "independent" voters approve of Trump's one-off airstrike, the administration equivalent of an erectile dysfunction commercial, a whopping 84 percent of Republicans support the bombing—only 14 percent disapprove. It’s doubtful you could get 84 percent of the current Republican Party to support bombing the Nazis, so that's quite the dramatic show of unity.
We see this over and over in the polls: the "independent" position tends to align more closely with the choices of Democratic voters than Republican voters. It's especially true in any question predicated merely on "approval." When you start asking questions for which the required Republican answers are less obvious, the results start drifting back toward the mainstream.
Few Americans are willing to see the U.S. get involved in Syria beyond the use of airstrikes. Only 18 percent would want ground troops. Half of Republicans would limit involvement to either airstrikes or diplomacy, and Democrats largely would focus on diplomatic efforts.
A true military campaign in Syria, then, remains wildly unpopular. While the pundits giggle at the presidential sheen of some exciting military footage, it's unlikely Team Trump could count on future military strikes to boost his sub-Nixon approval ratings.
Or maybe we're still giving too much credit, and the Republican base will change their minds on that, too, 10 minutes after he gives it a go.