Poll Numbers

Via Kevin Drum I linked to this CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll showing the President's poll numbers sinking, especially on the war. The commenters on Kevin's post were mostly celebrating like they had won the World Series.

If you are a Democrat doing a victory dance right now, you are probably nuts. The President still has a very unified party, all three brances of Government including an ever strengthening grip on the judiciary, and the vast majority of the corporate media. Any number of things could occur which would greatly strengthen the President without helping the country much in the long run: Oil could drop to $35/bll for a couple of years, the economy could continue slow growth, political progress may occur in Iraq (this would help the country a lot), or terrorists could strike again in the US (and this would hurt the country a lot but help the President - at least for a while).

Democrats need to think hard and come up with good candidates and issues for 2006. We had abominable strategy in the last three elections, and got the crap beaten out of us. In 2000 we thought "peace and prosperity" would win for us, in 2002 we tried craven me-tooism, and in 2004 thought the economy would let us cruise.

Maybe we should try ideas and passion next time.

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