…so said a realtor that we worked with as we finished our tour of penance in Iowa and moved back to Minnesota. His point was that people shopping for a home will tell you all kinds of things that they “have to have” in their new home. However, when it came right down to it, they would be flexible on nearly all “essentials” if they found a house that met their basic needs and their budget. What’s this got to do with the Republicans?
Rasmussen Reports has a pollthat tracks monthly the generic preference for control of Congress. If you look at the box in the upper right you’ll see that the R’s have been pretty much at a double digit disadvantage from the oldest date listed, April ’07. No surprise here, the MSM has been telling us constantly how much more Joe Lunchbucket and Susan Soccermom like the Rats over the Rs. Then, an odd thing happened on the way towards elections. Take a look at the recent few months. All of a sudden the Rs are back to low single digit differences…in fact, I’d guess that they are probably within the error rate of the poll. Heard any of that from the MSM?
So what happened? It could be a number of things; progress in Iraq, Bill’s racist comments, Nancy and Harry’s not so great adventure. I don’t have the evidence yet but I think it’s the economy stupid. Take a look at when the numbers turned, just in the past couple of months. What’s new since then, nothing really except that most folks have become convinced that the economy needs help.
Polls have been consistently showingthat the Rats are thought to be better at the economy. That never made any sense to me especially in the large margins that the polls showed. A real disconnect for me was after the last Rat debate when they talked to their focus group and asked about tax policy. All but 3 “independents” in the room said they were all for changing the taxes as Hill and BO want to do. Now unless they “clean up real nice,” these folks looked to be a pretty good cross section of America. It is/was inconceivable to me that the majority of them would see a tax increase and be OK with that. I think that as Hill and BO have continued to “out left” each other and Nancy and Harry have had their picture placed in all dictionarys beside the word “inept”, people have started to do some of the simple math of what a Rat president and Rat Congress will mean to their pocketbooks.
Regardless of who the Rats choose this Presidential election is going to be one of the starkest in terms policies and their impact on the average American. Some have argued to the contrary but I still think America has an IQ level that is above the world average. The Republicans need to be clear and concise in showing their ability to manage economic issues. If they do, it will be a huge plus for November. If they don’t or muddle it, we may as well start looking for property in Mexico.
