Rasmussen has a very interesting article today on the implications of Bush's Dubai port deal on the GOP "legacy" and on the 2006 election.
More below the fold
Some choice
excerpts:
Some Democrats are so offended by the current President that they wanted to make Impeachment a driving force of the election season. That probably would have been as successful in 2006 as it was in 1998 when Republicans focused on the Impeachment of Bill Clinton and lost ground in Congress.
Other Democrats thought (hoped) that Hurricane Katrina, the Dick Cheney hunting incident, or other issues that won't last until election day might topple the GOP from power.
A few thought the NSA wiretapping story was their big break. That turned out to be a gift for the President because he got to once again be the defender of national security. While most Americans think legal niceties should be observed, they are just as concerned about catching bad guys. The general public attitude is evenly divided between those who think we are too worried about national security and those who believe we are too worried about protecting individual liberties. Karl Rove was happy to have this issue in the news and quickly signaled that the GOP would make national security the primary issue of Election 2006
Other Democrats wanted to keep focusing on the question of how we got into Iraq rather than how we get out of the situation. Politically, this was a big loser because the public was already beginning to place more emphasis on domestic issues that favor Democrats. Until the last week or so, anything that drew attention back to Iraq was drawing attention to Bush's strongest asset--his national security credentials.
Rasmussen concludes with this:
Of course, there are still nine months to Election Day and a lot can happen. But, the situation in Iraq has given the Democrats the opportunity to regain majority status in Congress; the Dubai ports issue has provided a rallying point; and, the President has lost the initiative on his signature issue.
Unless the President can re-establish dominance on the national security issue, the opportunity for George W. Bush to leave behind a GOP Generation will disappear
.
Read the whole piece and draw your own conclusions. I agree with him that the Dubai Ports deal has the potential to finally sink Bush and the Republicans, especially this year.
