The interesting finding here: while the President's "favorables" are down 9 points, his "unfavorables" have held steady. The movement is to those who say "depends." This traditionally reflects increasing uncertainty among former supporters ... draw your own conclusions if the war or economy has greater weight in the "depends" equation. Graphic courtesy PollingReport.com.
This is going to be a closer election than people suspect, not for anything Bush is doing or not doing, but because voters tend to drift back to their roots when presidential elections come around. The country is split about 50-50, so every bit counts. The Democrats seem bound and determined at this point to shoot themselves in the feet with petty attacks that voters could care less about, when they could be positioning themselves to give Bush real problems on Homeland Security and fiscal solvency. If things keep up, Bush will win handily if only because dems are letting their abject hatred of the man overule their political senses (plus their saviest political minds are the Clintonians who have already laughed off 04, and are gearing up for Hillary in 08).
Posted by: Mark Buehner at July 18, 2003 12:09 AMMark,
Great post. I too, think this will be a much closer election than can be imagined right now. The democrats are indeed blinded by their hatred, and that's making them act irrationally.
Unfortnately, the things they could real nail Bush on - government spending - is not one of their strong suits. They were in power for over 40 years and none of them ever gave a thought to deficits, but now that they're out, it MATTERS? Government deficits are significant to the degree they drive up interest rates. Checked the rates lately? My wife and I are going through our 3rd re-fi in 18 months. It just keeps getting lower. So where's the threat?
I'm shocked, shocked to find there's spending going on here!!
The dems would get along well with Louie Renault.
Posted by: torpedo_eight at July 18, 2003 11:53 AM
