Third in an ongoing series examining the swing voter mind.
Swing voters are happy with Bush's initial response to 9/11, but mistrust his Iraq strategery. Doyle McManus has the latest here:
U.S. Future in Iraq a Growing Concern.
But more important than the headline is this:
But voters' concerns about the war do not necessarily translate into support for Bush's Democratic rivals in the 2004 presidential campaign, the poll found. Despite their misgivings, a narrow majority of respondents said they still trusted Bush to make the right decisions on Iraq, and a solid majority gave him high marks for his conduct of the war on terrorism.
Overall, most appear deeply unhappy about Iraq and uncertain that Bush's strategy is succeeding -- but they also are willing to give him more time to try.
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On the other hand, Geleske said, "I haven't seen any Democratic candidate I can get behind ... and I do admire what Bush did when 9/11 occurred." He said he hadn't decided how he would vote next year; "it's too early."
(...)
Previous Diaries have (tried to) explore the idea of why we are in iraq and what the Dem candidates should say about it now. Rather than being overtaken by events, I think that each candidate needs to carefully articulate where they stand both in the Iraq issue and the war on terror.
As McManus' interviewee says, "I haven't seen any Democratic candidate I can get behind ..."
And in the NY Times in a story about the GOP Bush and Terror upcoming ad:
"By indirectly invoking the Sept. 11 attacks, the commercial plays to what White House officials have long contended is Mr. Bush's biggest political advantage: his initial handling of the aftermath of the attacks."
We know from the WaPo:
Washington Post polling director Richard Morin explains that the higher approval rating in the Post/ABC poll does not necessarily correlate to the number of votes the president would receive if the election were held today.
"There are a number of people who marginally approve of the job [Bush] is doing, but are still undecided about whether they're going to vote for him again," he said.
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There's a swing vote segment of the population to be won over. They will decide the election. The don't necessarily think Bush is up to the job. But they're willing to give him the benefit of the doubt... for now. Will we convince them the Democrats are?