The 40% Chronicles (cont'd)
James Carville and Stanley Greenberg: The Democratic strategist and pollster shared a new poll on the country's political mood (David Cook, Christian Science Monitor)
The latest Democracy Corps survey, conducted June 20-26, found that Democrats are "not doing very well," Mr. Greenberg said at a Monitor breakfast.
Some 43 percent of voters said they had warm feelings about the Republican Party, while only 38 percent had positive feelings about Democrats. "Republicans weakened in this poll ... but it shows Democrats weakening more," Greenberg said. He attributes the decline to voters' perceptions that Democrats have "no core set of convictions or point of view."
Richie Daley's Party (Robert Novak, Town Hall)
Last week's long-range confrontation between Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin was much more than a personal tiff involving two formidable Illinois Democrats who obviously are not fond of each other. It contrasted Daley's majority Democratic Party of bygone years with Durbin's minority Democratic Party of today.
When Daley in his June 21 press conference referred to Durbin's rancorous comments about the U.S. military as a "disgrace," he was only repeating in public what many old-line Democratic loyalists told me not for quotation. But Durbin's Washington party colleagues defended his comparison of the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo with the bloodiest genocidal regimes in history. Durbin was forced into a grudging half-apology later on June 21 only because Daley spoke out.Daley sees Durbin as typical of today's negative, Washington-oriented Democratic Party. Daley, a born and bred loyal Democrat, is a builder rather than a political hit man. During 16 years as mayor, he has presided over the transformation of a grimy Rust Belt city into a sparkling jewel on the lake.
If the Democratic Party had any sense, Daley would be their nominee for 2008.
They don't and he won't, but as a successful mayor, Daley does seem to grasp that a party that seems to be against everything with no ideas how to do anything can only really drive its own numbers down (along with those of its opponents). Getting them above 40% requires a different approach.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/03/05 15:35 | American Politics | Technorati
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Comments
Daley is awash in corruption and some may stick. It's a simple ploy to diss Durbin for some positive press and hope things such as 'no show contract trucks' fade from the press.
Daley takes a free pass on the Durbin dirt.
Posted by lane @ 20:03 on 07/05/05
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