That is because she is not addressing the votes of liberals, libertarians and moderates. She is talking about why Bush is losing the base Republican conservatives. Bush is not at 31% approval because liberals don't like his Iraq policy; they never did and were never on his ledger in the first place. He still won in '04. He's at 31% because he has stopped listening to 50% of his base.
Iraq, for good or ill, has reached a place of equilibrium in voter perception. Minds are made up and nothing short of a spectacular win or loss will move the needle on the balance.
Dov:
"Hello. I'm a libertarian who voted for Bush. From everything I've heard from liberals, libertarians and moderates I know and have read on the web, there are three main problems with Bush: Iraq, Iraq and Iraq. Noonan does not even discuss Iraq."
LexBaird:
"That is because she is not addressing the votes of liberals, libertarians and moderates. She is talking about why Bush is losing the base Republican conservatives. Bush is not at 31% approval because liberals don't like his Iraq policy; they never did and were never on his ledger in the first place. He still won in '04. He's at 31% because he has stopped listening to 50% of his base.
"Iraq, for good or ill, has reached a place of equilibrium in voter perception. Minds are made up and nothing short of a spectacular win or loss will move the needle on the balance."
I've no doubt that a significant part of the conservative base is very unhappy with Iraq as well, and that this counts for some of the erosion of the base.
Some minds are made up; others can still change; others are changing as we speak.