7 months to the primaries… March 31, 2006
Posted by Delilah in : General , add a commentAnd John Zogby gives us the political lay of the land. Not pretty for the Republicans and the alternative sucks. That’s basically what I get from John’s post. The So-called Democrats would win seats in both the House and the Senate if the elections were held today, but they aren’t, so plenty of time for the So-called Democrats to disgust some more.
I like how John doesn’t mince words :
The Republicans are clearly in a bind on this issue and in the public eye. This could be a bad year for them. But while the Democrats are shown to be doing better in the polls today, the Democratic Party also enters the election with some serious problems. First, they are tongue-tied on the most intense issue of the year, the war in Iraq. They have been unable to raise the opposition to the war that their base wants because they so strongly supported Mr. Bush in the first place. Absent the money saved by bringing troops home that could then be used for programs like Medicare and education, the Democrats are in checkmate on these issues because there is no other place to get money for these programs — unless the Bush tax cuts are rolled back. Democrats fear rolling back tax cuts in an election year, and the alternative — coming up with their own package of tax cuts — still means no money for spending programs.
While Democrats, as the minority party in Congress, have been able to play defense by blocking some of Mr. Bush’s initiatives like Social Security reform, they have no program except to tweak the decrepit program already in existence. And while the Democrats were able to block the plan to turn over management of several major ports to a Dubai-owned company, this by no means confers credibility on them in the fight against terrorism. President Bush’s support for fighting the war on terrorism is now at only 42%, down from 64% when he won in 2004. Still, the Democrats remain outgunned on this issue.
Finally, the personalities. Mr. Bush may not have much political capital, but he has been a resilient political figure who has risen from the ashes before. The Democrats have no political personality to match him. While former President and Senator Clinton certainly excite the base of Democratic voters, their involvement triggers an equal and opposite excitement in the Republican base to oppose them.
