Change and Polls

The other day over at Middle Earth Journal in the midst of a tirade I noted that the country was ready for some real changes..."noted" is kind of weak. Today a WaPo/ABC News Poll has some things that back my assertion. 24% think the country is on the right track (who could that be?) and 75% want a different course than Bush's. Those who feel strongly on the issue total 60% with Democrats overwhelmingly, Independents at 75%, and even 50% of Republicans. Don't get too carried away, Democrats is obvious, Independents generally aren't pleased, and Republicans may not like George II but there are a lot of issues between them that no Democrat is going to address and some that only a handful would - some Democrats are having a bit of trouble with 1/15th of our population here illegally (assuming the top illegal number of 12-20 million).

Nearly 2/3 of respondents are unhappy with the economy and nearly 70% see a recession happening within the next year. These number would seem to track with the benefits received from BushCo economic strategies over the last 7 years, and their natural outcomes.

The top issues of concern are worth a look, the top three are, in order: Iraq, the economy, and health care and the kicker is Democrats are most trusted to deal with those issues by double digits. These also are the issues that Bush and the Republicans in Congress are most in step on and least likely to change directions on. Congress has dismal favorabilities at 28% with Democrats a bit better at 36% down from 54% after 100 days. The Democrats are getting hit from both ends so the numbers aren't as electorally horrid as they appear, the base is furious over Democratic cave ins to BushCo but also have no one else to vote for - a dangerous and long term fatal circumstance. Even so, 54% prefer to see Democrats in majority after 2008

What is clear is that BushCo's vision of America is not shared by an awful large percentage of Americans, getting the mixture right to create whole sale depredation of Republicans is not a simple thing. Americans still split 50/44 on smaller government/large government and by a small majority favor immigration reform involving legal residence with fines and other conditions. The only place Republicans seem to hold ground is in an even split on terrorism.

The poll's presumptive Democratic candidate is Hillary and versus Giuliani it is close and McCain a bit wider, everybody else is stomped. That result may dovetail with other poll results, leaving an impression that Hillary is not seen as an agent of acceptable change. Worrisome if she is, in fact, the nominee. Polls are odd things in many respects, there are issues with wording, name recognition, narrowness of polling data and finally interpretation of the data.

I'm not sure that the direction of the Democratic Party Congress and primary candidates mirrors what is shown in this poll and may lead to a re-evaluation by voters before the 08 elections. Democrats have shown a distressing ability to screw things up previously.