[In May 2003, many Muslims] saw a worldwide threat to Islam and [bin Laden] represented opposition to the West and the United States, ... Tempers have since cooled. |
After so long when the polls were deadlocked no matter what happened, now we have a situation where voter opinion is unsettled. There's a lot of uncertainty and you're going to have more variation in the polls than we've had in the past. |
Americans are depressed, angry and very worried about the economic consequences of the disaster. |
Associating Roberts with some kind of extremism would likely backfire because he is unlikely to be seen as extremist. |
Attacking Roberts as unlikely to defend the personal freedoms you are concerned about would have more resonance with many voters. |
Attitudes are a little more complicated than thumbs up or thumbs down. Americans do care about Iraq, but it doesn't have the personal impact that the war in Vietnam had. Secondly, this is a more patriotic time. Even though the public is disillusioned with the war in Iraq, it tends to support the concept of preemptive war at a time when most people feel we're at risk. |
Bush is seen as a good protector for the country. The more the perceived missteps, the greater the chances for further declines in support. |
Bush's numbers are going from bad to worse, and there is no silver lining. People just see more and more bad news everywhere and they don't see a way out. |
Even when we were struggling, people had been reluctant to think that Iraq would turn out like Vietnam, a failure for the United States. |
Gore is really handicapped by this and it makes it more difficult for him to put his best foot forward. |
He is not a jocular personality. He's not out talking in the public a lot. Certainly, the Scooter Libby problem, which has really added to the White House woes, is associated with him. All of these things tend to make him a bigger heavy for Bush's critics. |
He needs some good news in Iraq. He would be well served by a successful election. |
He's going to have to catch a lot of breaks, and he's got to try to achieve something not only (now) but for the rest of his term. |
His ratings for being trustworthy, which were his strong point for all of his first term, have tumbled rather substantially this year. |
His strong points are no longer his strong points. |