Bush and Rove have done a better job of gaining control of the news cycles this last month and are starting to show benifits in their polls. A just released CNN Poll reports that a
Majority wants Iraq pullout date set, poll finds And support for how Bush is handling the war has increased 5% from my to 39%.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A narrow majority of Americans -- 53 percent -- favors setting a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, with 47 percent saying the deadline should be in a year or less, according to a CNN poll released Friday.
The poll also showed Americans' approval of the way President Bush is handling the Iraq war is up 5 points from May's poll to 39 percent, while his disapproval rating fell 8 points, to 54 percent.
While these gains are small, and hopefully temporary, I think they illustrate the dangers of Democrats becoming too complacent about our growing leads in polls related to the upcoming November elections.
I'm particularly concerned about the many recent editorials and blogs from "centrists" who have been urging progressives to lay off of throttle back on the GOP "culture of corruption" themes. IMO, we need to do the exact opposite.
This of course should not be our only theme or even primary theme, however, I agree with Hounddog when he has written frequently to suggest that Integrity of Governance is a powerful unifying theme which makes an effective and cogent narrative of the underlying prerequisite of integrity in our government process if we are going to make our messages on Peace, Prosperity, Security, Environmental Stewardship, Health Care, Jobs, and other primary Democratic election themes.
CNN continues.
Among those who favor setting a deadline of a year or less, opinions also are divergent. The survey found 13 percent of Americans want withdrawal within a few weeks; 15 percent want it in six months; and 19 percent want it in a year.
Approval of the way he is handling terrorism is up 2 points from May's poll to 49 percent, while disapproval is down 3 points to 42 percent.
The poll, conducted for CNN by Opinion Research Corp. interviewed 1,017 adults from Wednesday through Thursday, a week after the announcement of the airstrike death of terrorist network leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq. It has a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
This illustrates what happens overtime Democrats pull back on the "culture of corruption" themes. We need to keep pounding these so as not to let Bush regain control of the news cycle as he has done in the last month.
We need to get Ted Kennedy to reiterate his demand that Dick Cheney appear before Congress to explain under oath the discrepancies between his public statements about PlameGate and the evidence Fitzpatrick has released including Cheney's handwritten notes on the Wilson editorial.
We need to get Senator Harry Reid to restore his credibility and followup on his encouraging tactic of shutting down the Senate until we get a real Phase 2 Investigation of the political misuse of intelligence in the Iraq Wars and Valerie Plame affair.
We need Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairmen Jay Rockefeller to follow through on his strategy of having Democrats unilateral pursue these investigations if the GOP will not cooperate. He pointed out, last fall, did he not, that any five Senators can launch subcommittee hearing with the approval of the Committee Vice Chair. What's holding things up Senators?
We need courageous Senators Feingold, Boxer, Harkin, Kennedy, and others to reissue a new Censure Motion that includes intelligence abuses, deceptions, violations of Geneva Conventions, Fallujah War Crimes, etc.
We need Joe Biden and others to pull of the stops and demand that incompetent Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld resign, be fired, or impeached. ASAP.
We cannot get complacent and assume we will just coast on into November election victories because we are ahead in generic Dems verus Pubs polls.
This can change quickly, and Bush, Rove, and the GOP are masters of poll manipulation.