I hate to say this, but the President could have learned something from the Clinton’s.
The Clinton administration took ‘leading by polls’ to its obvious extreme. We all complained about it throughout the 1990’s, but there is one thing you can say about it.
The Administration was reflecting the desire of the majority on many issues, especially the ‘third rail’ types, like Welfare Reform (yes, I know Clinton veto’d it twice before finally being forced into a corner. We did get what we conservatives wanted on that one, however).
If the President had just used polling data a teensy bit, he wouldn’t have walked off the cliff on border security and amnesty, for example.
He would have fought in Iraq ‘to win’ between 2004 and 2006’s election cycle, as he is today, and the results of last falls election would have been much different.
No President is ever ‘perfect’. But some are in fact dumber as it relates to maintaining their own base than others. We saw this with Carter’s one horrific term, we saw with with President Bush until after the most recent election cycle...but even now he still wants amnesty....
Just wanted to commend this post. Very insightful regarding fighting the war effectively between election cycles.