Something odd happened to me tonight. I live in Iowa, the first major battleground in the primary season. I'm a registered Republican. So tonight I got a phone call from an automated system, from some company I never heard of. It starts out, "Hello, Registered Republican. We would like to ask you a few questions." They then asked questions about abortion, gun control and school vouchers -- was I for or against each, and how important were my views on each issue in deciding how to vote.
My question is, who is the client for this poll? There is absolutely no reason for Dubya to be polling Iowa a year before the general election. Could it be someone thinking about challenging him from the right? Seems unlikely, despite the occasional frothing. So I'm left with the conclusion that one of the Dems is considering trying to entice Republicans to attend the Democratic caucus and support him. But which one?
Well, Lieberman, Clark and Kerry have all pulled out of Iowa, iirc. There is no way Moseley-Braun, Kucinich or Sharpton would be crazy enough to think that they could ever attract significant GOP support. Same for Dean. Edwards campaign is on life support. That leaves Dick Gephardt.
Does any of this make sense to anyone? Could Gephardt be considering trying to reinvent himself by moving a little to the right on social issues in hopes of attracting Republicans who don't have any pressing need to attend their own caucuses? Or is there something else I'm not thinking of?
If Gep moved right on social issues he would have 0 chance of getting the nomination.
There is no room for Gephardt to move right on abortion, gun control, or school vouchers. His position on each of those is rather iron-clad. If this came from a Democrat, then it's pretty much guaranteed to be John Edwards who has space to move right on all these issues and several others. Edwards also just sunk a hefty amount of advertising dollars into Iowa and desperately wants to get himself up above the 15% threshold for awarding delegates.