Though Adam linked to the CBS/NYT Poll earlier [PDF link], I thought it’d be worthwhile to highlight some more of the information in the poll, as represented by Adam Nagourney of the Times.
In a survey that brought to life the party’s anxieties about keeping the White House, Republicans said they were concerned that their party had drifted from the principles of Ronald Reagan, its most popular figure of the past 50 years.
Forty percent of Republicans said they expected Democrats to take control of the White House next year, compared with 46 percent who said they believed a Republican would win. Just 12 percent of Democrats said they thought the opposing party would win the White House.
Even as Republican voters continued to support President Bush and the war in Iraq, including the recent increase in the number of American troops deployed there, they said a candidate who backed Mr. Bush’s war policies would be at a decided disadvantage in 2008. And they suggested that they were open to supporting a candidate who broke with the president on a crucial aspect of his Iraq strategy.
…
“There is going to be so much antiwar in the news media that there is no way the Republicans are going to win,” Randy Miller, 54, a Republican from Kansas, said in a follow-up interview after participating in the poll. “The Democrats will win because of the war. I think the Republicans just won’t vote.”
It’s no wonder that 57% of Republicans want more choices in the presidential field: their guys can’t overcome the inertia of Bush’s failed presidency. The climate is simply too hostile for someone to come along and espouse the same positions as President Bush as most GOP candidates do.
There is one thing that bears attention, though. Right now the campaign exists at a very abstract level. It’s more horse race and arena rock concert than discussion of ideas. People don’t know the candidates of either party well and the polling numbers on each candidate are based less in actual approval than name recognition and media perception. This will change over time and, eventually (I hope) this race will become about competing ideas as to how to run this country. The CBS/Times poll merely shows that Republican ideas are at a massive disadvantage from the get-go.
President Bush’s course of action over the remaining years of his presidency will have a large impact on the national approval levels of the Republican Party. If he does not seriously clean house and begin to hold people within his administration accountable for their failures – Walter Reed, deploying injured troops to Iraq, firing prosecutors for political reasons, abusing FBI powers (to name four scandals from the last week) – the GOP presidential field will suffer and he will cost his party at least four years of White House occupancy.
7 Responses to “Republicans In Disarray”
Matt, congratulations, you did not say “Clinton” or “Liberals” in that comment.
As for Giuliani, he has to win the nomination first. Gingrich has not jumped in yet. I am not sure what Gingrich’s threshold for “someone running away” with the nomination. Rudy’s double-digit lead over McCain may be big enough.
Then again, this is Newt we’re talking about. Probably one of the most arrogant Republicans of all time.
newt just said the other night during his debate with cuomo that he believed rudy will be the republican nominee. not exactly a sentiment of someone who aims to challenge the mayor. maybe he has vp on the brain. newt has been included in most major polls, and again rudy pounds him just like the rest of the field and the entire democratic field.
on this pace, the libs will have exhausted the personal attacks on rudy by summer, and eventually they will to talk about his record, and trying to attack his reocord as mayor falls extremely flat, because its as if you are saying ny would be better with dinkins as mayor, and no dem, not even the most diehard liberal can say that with a straight face. be afraid libs, rudy up 11 on clinton in PA, up in NJ, up in Ohio,up big in florida and just single digits back in NY. ouch
besides, when it gets down to it, the right isn’t going to stay home with this much at stake over abortion. this isn’t ‘92. when the newsletters start coming to their homes reminding them that if they dont back rudy they get president hillary, they will show up in droves that will make karl rove blush.
when its all said and done, and giuliani wins the presidency, we can all call up jim webb and thank him for eliminating the one hillbilly right winger that could have gotten this nomination. thanks again jimbo.
Well, actually, Matt, crime was on its way down when Rudy took over. It was a result from the Dinkins administration, not what Rudy was doing.
“Well, actually, Matt, crime was on its way down when Rudy took over. It was a result from the Dinkins administration, not what Rudy was doing. ”
wow, talk about blatant ignorance. crime rose throughout dinkins admin, and where it dipped to was still higher then at any point during giuliani’s tenure. give the man his due, he left that city imeasurably better then the one he inheritted. after years of crime growing, only at the very end, did it dip, slightly, and in large part to dinkins being on the way out.
Something to say?
if by disarray you mean the republican frontrunner leading all 3 leading dems in every poll, then yes, they are in disarray.
Left by matt
March 13, 2007 at 5:45pm