A trump card no more
Mike Maio
Issue date: 11/13/06 Section: Election 2006
- Page 1 of 3 next >
The most evil campaign ad in history. Perhaps it's a bit of an exaggeration, but that's what the New Haven Independent called a television spot aired in September by Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.). The ad attacks Johnson's opponent in Connecticut's fifth-district congressional race, Democrat Chris Murphy, for his opposition to the Bush administration's unwarranted wiretapping program. It falsely suggests that filing for a warrant to eavesdrop on domestic terrorists would waste "valuable time" in an emergency, implying that Murphy does not take seriously the threat posed by terrorists (current law allows government agencies to apply for warrants after the wiretapping takes place).
The strategy of portraying Democrats as weak on national security is of course nothing new. Republicans waltzed to victory in both the 2002 midterms and the 2004 presidential election by rallying behind President Bush and exploiting the party's significant advantage on the issue of national security. Republican incumbents in both House and Senate races across the country entered the 2006 campaign season fully expecting that the standard tactic of raising the specter of terrorism would once again help them quash their Democratic challengers. For the first time in three elections, they were wrong.
Unless President Bush trots out Osama bin Laden in shackles between now and Election Day, the Democrats will likely win control of the House and possibly the Senate. An electorate increasingly fed up with the war in Iraq and disenchanted with the Republican-controlled Congress is simply unmoved by attack ads like Johnson's. The endless stream of bad news from Iraq and the Republicans' failure to enact meaningful immigration reform have eroded the public's faith in Republicans to handle national security. A recent USA Today poll showed that Americans, by a five point margin, believe that Democrats would do a better job than Republicans at handling the threat of terrorism. Additionally, Americans no longer consider terrorism a major concern. Thirty-one percent say that the war in Iraq is the "most important" issue facing the country, and the economy (18 percent) and healthcare (16 percent) rank second and third, respectively, according to a Newsweek poll. Terrorism ranks fourth at 13 percent.
The strategy of portraying Democrats as weak on national security is of course nothing new. Republicans waltzed to victory in both the 2002 midterms and the 2004 presidential election by rallying behind President Bush and exploiting the party's significant advantage on the issue of national security. Republican incumbents in both House and Senate races across the country entered the 2006 campaign season fully expecting that the standard tactic of raising the specter of terrorism would once again help them quash their Democratic challengers. For the first time in three elections, they were wrong.
Unless President Bush trots out Osama bin Laden in shackles between now and Election Day, the Democrats will likely win control of the House and possibly the Senate. An electorate increasingly fed up with the war in Iraq and disenchanted with the Republican-controlled Congress is simply unmoved by attack ads like Johnson's. The endless stream of bad news from Iraq and the Republicans' failure to enact meaningful immigration reform have eroded the public's faith in Republicans to handle national security. A recent USA Today poll showed that Americans, by a five point margin, believe that Democrats would do a better job than Republicans at handling the threat of terrorism. Additionally, Americans no longer consider terrorism a major concern. Thirty-one percent say that the war in Iraq is the "most important" issue facing the country, and the economy (18 percent) and healthcare (16 percent) rank second and third, respectively, according to a Newsweek poll. Terrorism ranks fourth at 13 percent.
Be the first to comment on this story