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August 23, 2006
Playing The Terror Card
For those skeptical White House watchers, the breaking (and subsequent uber-hyping) of the foiled British hijacker plot story had all the familiar symptoms of Bush Administration fear-mongering. While the arrest of these would-be murderers was certainly welcome news, the timing of the story was suspicious. The Administration had known for days what was happening and tried to milk it in the press for maximum effect.
And since Team Bush's playing of the terror card had paid large political dividends in the past, who could blame them for going once more to the well? As one poll-watcher noted last week, however, the political benefit for the White House seems to have been significantly lower than in the past, to say the least. As we all know, crying wolf has its limits.
In today's Washington Post, Chris Cillizza picks up the story, looking at how the broader issue of terrorism may play in the upcoming November midterm election.
His look at several new polls shows that support for the president on the issue of terrorism has inched up again, about the only half-decent grade he gets from the American public these days. His overall job approval remains mired around 40%, with strong support being outweighed by strong opposition nearly 2 to 1.
But while Bush's numbers on terrorism are OK, Cillizza notes just how far he (and the Republican Party) have fallen on this issue since those halcyon pre-Iraq days of 2002. For example, a recent WaPo poll showed 46% of respondents trusted Republicans to best handle terrorism, compared to 38% for Democrats -- a modest GOP advantage. Rewind to the Post's October 2002 poll, where 61% gave Republicans the edge on terrorism, compared to just 26% for Democrats. Quite a drop.
White House political guru Karl Rove long ago laid out his strategy to once again use the terrorism issue for GOP gain in this fall's election. And considering President Bush's dismal public standing on virtually every other issue and his overall job performance, who could blame him? But while recent polls show a small Republican advantage on this issue remains, it may be this card has been played one too many times to have the desired effect.
We shall see in 76 days.
Posted by houtopia at August 23, 2006 02:39 PM