All through the '04 campaign, whenever polls came back showing Kerry making a move or holding on to a lead, the corporate journalist reporting the numbers would nearly never fail to mention that BushCo still polled strong when it came to how people felt he was handling terrorism. Nagourney the Noble gave us the best example of how completely twisted a corporate journalist would get to make that case, but it was clearly the established narrative at the time. Not any more. From the USA Today via Atrios:
• For the first time — albeit by a narrow 49%-48% — a plurality disapprove of the way Bush is handling the issue of terrorism. Six in 10 disapprove of the way he's handling foreign affairs, the economy, Iraq and immigration, and 71% disapprove of him on controlling federal spending.
Judging from past experience with Team BushCo, this news makes me a million times more nervous than any screwball video from Osama bin Laden and his inexhaustible supply of seconds in command.
That's not to say any Democrat would do better than Bush on this score. It's fair to say that the Dems give off the impression of being utter wimps.
Think Bushco would have rolled over if the Dems had been the ones stealing the elections? Hell no. If Dems don't even bother to fight for their own principles and for power why would they bother to fight for America etc etc?
Democrats seem to think Bush losing trust means they must be gaining it. In fact it seems to be more "a nail in any pie makes you suspicious of all pies".
Posted by: DavidByron | November 15, 2005 at 09:39 AM
Democrats seem to think Bush losing trust means they must be gaining it.
Some polls indicated that this is happening. Two big ones in VA and NJ certainly give that impression. Certainly a big part of the GOP strategy for '06 will be that all politicians are evil so you'd be better off with angry drunken daddy who's got a gun and isn't afraid to use it than mommy who is too inept to protect her young. It's a stupid construct built around a false choice that a lot of Americans fall for nearly every time.
Posted by: eRobin | November 15, 2005 at 12:52 PM