You know, maybe the McCain ad below has something to do with these poll results:
In an ominous sign for Republicans in the general election, almost 46% of respondents who say they are paying “a lot” of attention to the campaigns say they plan to participate in the Democratic primary, while only 36% say they will vote in the GOP contest. Among those paying “some” attention, 38% plan to vote in the Democratic contest, while only 34% plan to vote in the GOP primary.
This is a wild statement, but is it possible -- and I'm just saying possible, not even likely -- that centering the entire 2008 Republican primary around the subject of Hillary Clinton may have been, well, a mistake?
That's what Dave Weigel argues in a must-read piece in The American Conservative. Hillary isn't enough. Hillary hatred has worn itself out. Her name no longer fundraises, books about her no longer sell. The theory is she'll bring out the conservative base, but there's no real evidence. Meanwhile, the Republican Party is skipping on the issues. A new poll out of The LA Times shows Americans support Democrats 2:1 on health care, and a plurality believe that it's the government's responsibility to provide benefits. Worse for the GOP, Independents line up with Democrats here. In fact, they're the most likely to complain about "job lock" from the current system. "In all, 20% of independents said they or someone in their household were forced to stay in a job because it provided healthcare, compared with 13% of Democrats and 5% of Republicans." The Republican response here is to say Hillary supports socialized medicine.
It isn't enough.
