Lois Murphy was one of the Kos Dozen last year, and came within inches of unseating Republican incumbent Jim Gerlach in this surburban Philly district. Second time will
be the charm.
After a long discourse about the issue, John Ross and Jeff Deacon, who run The Religious Bookshoppe [in Coatesville], explain their shifting views on national politics.
"I'm a lifelong Republican," says Mr. Ross, amid an art-deco interior where they hope to add a cafe. "But for the first time in my life, I can imagine voting Democrat." Mr. Deacon, too, has soured on Mr. Bush. Both cite frustration with the war in Iraq.
A similar refrain is heard just across the street, at Rusti's Beauty Supply. A bumper sticker on the window - "The Bush Promise: Survival of the Richest" - doesn't slow the flow of black women seeking hair-care products. Inside, owner Rusti Hoskins vents his views with more color than can be printed in a family newspaper. "I can't stand Bush," he says in gravelly tones. Once reliably Republican, Mr. Hoskins is now disgusted by the Iraq war.
His customers are more muted. Dovita Douglass, considering the candor of Rusti's politics as much as the subtlety of his beauty advice, is most concerned with finding a job. "I don't really think about Congress," she says.
Comments from those who do think about politics, however, could spell trouble for Republicans. To be sure, voters are hardly enamored with Democrats. But their feelings toward the president and his policies suggest a mood of dissatisfaction with Washington that could threaten Republican incumbents like Gerlach. It's a mood that buoys his Democratic challenger, Lois Murphy.
Bush will be an albatross in every competitive district, and will make trouble for many more that shouldn't be competitive.
