I Can Answer That

There's no doubt in reading a Dick Morris column that he wants Republicans controlling both houses of Congress. Simply put, he wants America properly protected from hate-filled terrorists. In his latest column, Morris asks a great question, a question I can answer right now without hesitation. Here's Mr. Morris' question:
"So, did Americans wake up to the need to keep Republicans in office to defend against terror? Or was it just a snooze alarm and will they go back to sleep? The polls in the next weeks will tell the story."
We don't have to wait that long to know the answer. It's worth noting that we thwarted al Qaida's plot to blow up American-bound airplanes over a month ago, August 10th to be precise. Since then, the American public's attention has been riveted to the terrorism issue. Americans feel far more passionately about preventing terrorist attacks and aggressively interrogating terrorists like Khaled Sheikh Muhammed and Abu Zubaydah than they feel about the war in Iraq.
The problem for the Republicans is that the voters of this country badly want the Democrats to win when it comes to almost every issue other than domestic terror. Despite the good economy, they trust Democrats more on jobs. The deficit is shrinking, but they still trust Democrats more on the budget. And on issues like Social Security, Medicare, drug costs, education, climate change, and the environment, they trust Democrats more and always have.
That isn't a bit of a problem overall, not because the economy, creating jobs and protecting Social Security aren't important; it's that preventing terrorist attacks and securing our borders are the overwhelmingly dominant issues of the day.

I'm reminded of the polling that was released the day before the 1984 elections. I think it's analogous to Morris' statement That polling showed Walter Mondale with more support on all but two issues. A day later, Walter Mondale won his home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia. What were the two issues where President Reagan led Mondale, you ask? The economy and national security. By the way, Reagan led in both categories by an overwhelming margin.

Morris gets it right with this:
These three events have not only served to rivet public attention on the war on terror, but they have also severed the domestic effort to protect our homeland security from the War in Iraq. It is no longer necessary to approve of the war in order to want to keep Republicans in power to avoid dilution of our anti-terror initiatives.
That last sentence should scare Democrats down to their core. I suspect it does. I suspect that they're putting on their game faces on this but they know that the American public has left them on this issue, at least in sufficient numbers to retake the majority in either the House or Senate.

Morris' use of the alarm clock and snooze bar is fitting in this respect: With the nation's focus on terrorism, NSA intercepts and aggressive terrorist interrogation being this intense, it's almost lights out time for Democrats.



Posted Wednesday, September 20, 2006 3:41 PM

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