Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: December 31, 2006 – January 06, 2007 Archives:
CBS: 68% ‘optimistic’ about 110th Congress; 25% ‘pessimistic’.
Top priority for 110th: Iraq, 45%, Economy/Jobs 7%; Health Care 7%.
Perhaps some of my public opinion analyst friends will chime in on this. But I’m not sure I remember ever seeing such a stark number on public priorities on a question like this. With nearly half the respondents giving the same answer and the second highest not even rating in double digits.
The poll question I would like to see put to GOP voters who identify as having pulled the lever for Bush in 2004: knowing what you know now, would you have returned Bush for a second term?
Looking back, Kerry main strength seems to have been that he wasn’t Bush — not a bad thing, I’m glad I’m not Bush either but hardly a compelling argument. Are the Dems going to put someone forward in 2008 who can compete against whoever succeeds the incumbent? In a perverse sense, I wish we didn’t have term limits: you know he would want to run for a third term and who could talk him out of it, a guy who equates leaving with losing? He’d never go willingly. He’d throw everyone under the bus to convince the voters he was making a break with the past. I don’t think they would buy it, but who know?