Voters cool to Bush but challengers falter.

The Washington Times ^ | May 1, 2007 | Donald Lambro and Stephen Dinan

[no dems]

Poll after poll shows dissatisfaction with President Bush and an "enthusiasm gap" working against Republicans heading into next year's elections, yet the top Republican presidential candidates are running even with or ahead of the top Democrats in head-to-head matchups. "A major cautionary note for the Democrats at this point in the election cycle is the disparity between Americans' partisan preferences for the next president in the abstract and their preferences between specific candidates being offered up to the voters," the Gallup Poll said.

In a Quinnipiac University Poll released last week, former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani leads Democratic Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton in the three swing states of Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania. The same poll shows that Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, leads Mrs. Clinton in Ohio and Pennsylvania and is tied with her in Florida, and he splits with Mr. Obama, leading in Ohio, trailing in Pennsylvania and tied in Florida. In Gallup's national poll, Mr. Giuliani and Mrs. Clinton are virtually tied -- and other polls have shown similar results.

Polls asking voters whether they prefer a generic Republican or generic Democrat for president give the Democrats a strong advantage. 49 percent of registered voters wanted the Democratic Party to win the White House, 10 percentage points more than favored Republicans. "It is an apparent contradiction. The explanation lies in the difference between the approval and disapproval of one president versus a comparison of two different candidates," Republican pollster Whit Ayres said. "A lot of people who disapprove of both the war in Iraq and President Bush's handling of it do not necessarily want Hillary or a Democrat as president. That is particularly true of independents who voted overwhelmingly for Democrats for Congress in the 2006 election.

[no dems]

Oh, how I'd love to see Al Gore get into the mix with Hillary Clinton and Barack Osama. The scary part is, he might win.

[Kay]

Not surprised.

[Carl LaFong]

Voters cool to Bush? HE AIN’T RUNNING FOR ANYTHING!

[MistrX]

Oh, how I'd love to see Al Gore get into the mix with Hillary Clinton and Barack Osama. The scary part is, he might win.

If any of these 3 win, we in for a national nightmare.

[tobyhill]

The last election had very little to do with Iraq withdrawal, it was high gas prices and illegal immigration.

[calex59]

You know what? Even the Washington Times isn't aware that Bush is running for office in the next election, at least not for President. Polls do not show what voters are mad about. Most people dissatisfied with Bush's handling of the war could be, and most likely are, mad at him for pussy footing around and not taking it to the terrorists and for indicting soldiers and Marines for shooting the enemy.

Not to mention his idiotic border policies. Conservatives want a conservative and that leaves out all dems and most republican candidates. Also, there are quite a few dems who want the border controlled and know that the dems won't do it. Not only that most dems, not the physco far left types, are not real happy with the pandering of the dem pols to the crazies.

[Tax-chick]

I noticed that, too. Who cares what people think about President Bush? For better or worse, he’s the Past once November 2008 hits.

[50mm]

Oh, how I'd love to see Al Gore get into the mix with Hillary Clinton and Barack Osama.

Let's hope he runs for the Green Party and splits the defeatocrat/dhimmicrat vote.

[no dems]

Let's hope he runs for the Green Party and splits the defeatocrat/dhimmicrat vote.

Oh, that would be too much to even hope for. I have no way to express how I would love to see that. I heard from a Green Party activist that Ralph Nader is prodding Al Gore to run on the Green ticket.