If Only There Were an Alternative to Voting Republican …
Finally a poll I can get behind. From MyDD via Atrios:
The poll shows that Bush’s approval rating stands at 39 percent, a new low for the president. In the last NBC/Wall Street Journal survey, which was released in mid-September, 40 percent approved of Bush’s job performance while 55 percent disapproved. In addition, just 28 percent believe the country is headed in the right direction, another all-time low in Bush’s presidency.(…)
In addition, with 13 months until the 2006 congressional elections, 48 percent say they prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress, compared with 39 percent who want the Republicans to control Capitol Hill. In fact, that nine-point difference is the largest margin between the parties in the 11 years the NBC/Journal poll has been tracking this question.
I’ve been as happy as the next gal to see BushCo circling the drain in the polls for months now but I wasn’t too excited because the Dems were right there with him. Until now. If they can keep reminding voters of the definition of Checks and Balances, I think it will be possible for the Dems, unreasonably timid on the topic of the war, to have their cake and eat it too. Running on the issue of oversight may be enough. But of course first they’ll have to remind people that they exist, which means sticking their heads out of the foxhole in range of the corporate media. They’ll be battling against a deeply established narrative:
But Hart [the Democratic pollster who took the survey] argues that Democrats aren’t necessarily responsible for this margin. “It is not that Democrats have done so well,” he said. “It is that people are disgusted.” McInturff [the Republican pollster who took the survey] puts it this way: “People are very turned off and unhappy with the state of play in American politics.”
That’s bullshit, but we’ve seen what happens when the Kewl Kids get their teeth in a brand new bone. It’s not easy to wack it out of their mouths.
