Americans may rally around a president when he sends troops to war but not when he sends them the bill. |
I think that's one of the things that made people start thinking differently about Vice President Bush in early 1988, where they started to see him come out on his own, become his own man, win a few, |
In many respects, the public is reacting to the Edwards pick in almost the same way that they reacted to his rival, Dick Cheney, in 2000. |
It's difficult to tell from these poll results how the speech will affect general U.S. public, |
It's obvious that the debate helped Kerry. What's less obvious is how. |
It's possible that some people are thinking that the ground troops will face almost no casualties, as happened in the Persian Gulf, |
Many Americans did not watch the speech. Those who did were 2-to-1 Republican, so most were arguably already in the president's camp. |
might have helped Dole slightly. |
Part of it is his resume, part of it is his announcement bounce, part of it may simply be that he's a fresh face. He is, after all, the flavor of the month. |
So the pressure is on Kerry to meet expectations. And let's not forget the good news for the White House in this poll: Bush is still seen as a stronger leader who would better deal with Iraq and terrorism, |
The American public really starts to dislike a president after six, seven, eight years. They want change, they know they're not going to get it from the incumbent, and they suspect that the incumbent's sidekick is also not going to bring it about, |
The GOP would point out -- and they would be right -- that the approval rating in the autumn before an election is not a good predictor of how the election will turn out, |
The polls showed very clearly that Bush the father had exactly the same problems in 1987 that Al Gore is facing today, ... He wasn't considered inspiring, people didn't think he could bring about change and he wasn't thought of as a strong leader. |
The real question for Clark is whether he can sustain his significant lead once the hoopla over his entry into the race has died down. |
The tripwire for the administration may be as they see support for ground troops growing, that may be only ground troops with no casualties, |