Rick B
Hillary Clinton has raised more money and expended more political capital on behalf of others than anyone else in the elected Dem. ranks. She is absolutely setting the table for ’08 and she’s doing an excellent job at it.
Seen any analysis by either side concerning that? I read the pundits but I don’t give them much weight.
I know, it’s weird.
Why don’t we have more writers with this kind of . . . inside(?) perspective.
Do you have anyone you recommend?
And thanks for the definition of internal polling data.
Jerry
Kerry only needs to play rope-a-dope to win the election.
Perfect!
I love it!
That’s what I was trying to say—-that’s apparently what they believe.
The Dems have done an excellent job of smearing Bush, although they’ve had plenty of help from the Bushies themselves (subject of previous contentious threads).
My favorite line on this was the WSJ, something like, “Who does the White House’s P.R., the guys who work for Michael Jackson?”
Stephen_M
But I recognize that I hold the minority view. I still run into people who speak of Tet as a U.S. defeat.
Absolutely.
I was stunned when I came across “Big Story” and discovered that Tet was a loss for the other guy.
Thibaud
It’s obvious that a large part of the public is suffering battle fatigue, so a winning strategy for the Dems would be to praise limited interventions–like Afghanistan– to the hilt, and trash both the Iraq War and the non-”allies” and the UN.
What a great thread this is!
That’s it—people have battle fatigue, whether or not they have relatives KIA in Afghanistan or Iraq.
People are exhausted from the constant threat since 9/11, and exhausted from the Culture Wars (I know I am), and I think it’s also true that any soldier’s death weighs on the rest of us. Every single time I see a photograph of a parent weeping over the coffin of his or her son, I start crying. Every single time.
I’ve thought–I don’t know this is right, but I’ve wondered–that one reason to oppose wars is to not have to feel that way. I don’t know how people who were against the war in Iraq feel when they see photographs of families who’ve lost soldiers, but I know I feel profoundly responsible because I supported the war so strongly, and still do.
I know I supported the cause and the action that brought their lives to this place.
