No Surprise: Republican Front-Runners Lying about Terrorism

If you click on the link in this entry's title, you can read an article that appeared in the Boston Globe on Sunday, May 27, 2007 and which can be read at www.boston.com. The thrust of the article is that Republican front-runners for the 2008 Republican nomination are lying about links between the war in Iraq and terrorists, especially Al Qaeda. This is not surprising since the Bush Administration used language to suggest such a link in the run-up to this war.

Now, why were the Bushies able to get away with it? Well, boys and girls, it was because the news media, and especially TV network news, never called them on it. They allowed the President, the Vice-President, and the then National Security Advisor to imply to the American people that such links existed.

An example is this quote from the Globe article about Bush linking Hussein to terrorism:

Bush, for instance, repeatedly spoke of Hussein's support for terrorism -- which many Americans apparently took to mean that Hussein supported Al Qaeda in its jihad against the United States. The administration, however, sourced that claim to Hussein's backing of Palestinian terrorist groups targeting Israel.

Do you ever remember any mainstream media, especially television reporters, every calling Bush on this kind of claim? We don't and we imagine that most of our readers don't either.

It was also effective as this quote, also from the Globe article, shows:

The belief that there is a clear connection between Iraq and the 9/11 attacks has been a key determinant of support for the war. A Harris poll taken two weeks before the 2004 presidential election found that a majority of Bush's supporters believed that Iraq was behind the 9/11 attacks -- a claim that Bush has never made. Eighty-four percent believed that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had "strong links" with Al Qaeda, a claim that intelligence officials have long disputed.

So, they are doing it because it works and because they have nothing else. They can't talk about the economy since America is bleeding jobs at an ever increasing rate. They can't talk about effective management of government because of Hurricane Katrina. They can't talk about success in Iraq because it has been, and will continue to be, a hole in the sand in which we are pouring lives and treasure. They can talk about cutting taxes, but that only benefits a relative few number of voters. What do they have left? Fear and loathing. The two standbys in the Republican political operatives playbooks when all else fails. Get ready for one long venomous political year.

Newsweek Poll Shows that George W. Bush is a Drag on GOP

This is from an article on the Newsweek website:

May 5, 2007 - It’s hard to say which is worse news for Republicans: that George W. Bush now has the worst approval rating of an American president in a generation, or that he seems to be dragging every ’08 Republican presidential candidate down with him. But According to the new NEWSWEEK Poll, the public’s approval of Bush has sunk to 28 percent, an all-time low for this president in our poll, and a point lower than Gallup recorded for his father at Bush Sr.’s nadir. The last president to be this unpopular was Jimmy Carter who also scored a 28 percent approval in 1979. This remarkably low rating seems to be casting a dark shadow over the GOP’s chances for victory in ’08. The NEWSWEEK Poll finds each of the leading Democratic contenders beating the Republican frontrunners in head-to-head matchups.

Here is some interesting observations about the leading Democratic presidential hopefuls from the poll:

While the poll has some high marks for Clinton, it’s not all good news. Though the New York senator and former first lady aims to project an aura of inevitability that she will win the Democratic nomination, Obama beats the leading Republicans by larger margins than any other Democrat: besting Giuliani 50 to 43 percent, among registered voters; beating McCain 52 to 39 percent, and defeating Romney 58 percent to 29 percent.

Like Obama, Edwards defeats the Republicans by larger margins than Clinton does: the former Democratic vice-presidential nominee outdistances Giuliani by six points, McCain by 10 and Romney by 37, the largest lead in any of the head-to-head matchups. Meanwhile, Sen. Clinton wins 49 percent to 46 percent against Giuliani, well within the poll’s margin of error; 50 to 44 against McCain; and 57 to 35 against Romney.

According to the poll, where Clinton does well is among Democrats:

Where Clinton remains the undisputed champ is among Democrats. When matched against her main rivals for the Democratic nomination, Clinton is the choice of 51 percent of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters over Obama’s 39 percent; and she defeats Edwards 57 percent to 38 percent. Obama has not substantially narrowed Clinton’s lead since the early March NEWSWEEK poll, where he trailed Clinton by 14 points. Edwards has narrowed Clinton’s lead over him though. Back in March Edwards trailed Clinton by 31 points; now her lead is down to 19 points.

On the Republican side, McCain is cutting into Giuliani's lead:

Giuliani, the Republican frontrunner, might want to look over his shoulder too. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning voters, Giuliani leads McCain 56 percent to 41 percent (15 points). But two months ago in the NEWSWEEK Poll, Giuliani held a 25-point lead. Both candidates trounce Romney, despite his placing first in the first-quarter fundraising sweepstakes. Giuliani holds a staggering 51-point lead over Romney and McCain holds a 41-point lead over the former Massachusetts governor.

The poll also shows that 60% of the Democrats surveyed would like to see former VP Al Gore enter the race, but only 32% of Republicans would like to see Newt Gingrich enter the race. Democrats survey were satisfied with their party's presidential candidates by a 77% to 14% margin but Republicans were only satisfied with their choices by a 52% to 38% margin. This could mean that if any one of the Republican nominees could be running in an environment where a substantial minority of Republicans aren't happy with their party's nominee.

You can see the actual poll results here and you can read the article here.