Poll Smoking

A New York Times/CBS poll released this morning reveals that the Foley scandal may cost the Republicans dearly in November and that the scandal has also eroded the perception that the Republicans are the party of “moral values”. Curiously, yesterday the Times gave play to a story that seemed to show the exact opposite; that self-identified born-again Christians placed most of the blame at the feet of Mr. Foley rather than at the Republican congressional leadership. The story also opined that it was simply possible that people’s opinion of Congressional leadership was incapable of sinking any lower than it is no matter what the scandal. Congress’s approval numbers is running several points lower than Bush’s, and his are nothing to write home about.

Nevertheless the results of the poll taken at the end of last week reveal that the number of Americans who approve of Mr. Bush’s handling of the so-called “War on Terror” dropped from 54 to 46 percent over the last two weeks, perhaps showing that the increase in violence in Iraq and the Foley scandal have had a negative effect on the President’s numbers despite the White House propaganda machine’s incessant drum beat that the Democrats are the modern day equivalent of Nazi appeasers.

The poll also showed the Country evenly divided on the issue of whether the Democrats or Republicans can better handle the “terrorist threat”. This is the first time since Bush took office that a larger number of voters trust the Democrats more on this issue. This is interesting on a number of levels because it seems to reveal that either the voters are starting to believe that the threat is overblown or that the Republican’s constant lying and misrepresentation of material facts have led to a crisis of confidence among the electorate.

My favorite numbers to come out of this poll, and the ones the Republicans should be very concerned with, deal with the issue of who better reflects the voter’s personal moral values. The Democrats won this one by a good 9 points. The question was actually, “Does the Republican party or the Democratic party come closer to sharing your moral values?” Democrats 47, Republicans 38. Hmmm. I am assuming this result doesn’t mean that moderates in the heartland have suddenly developed a taste for gay marriage and abortion, but rather that the swing voters view the handling of the Foley scandal and, one hopes, the war in Iraq as moral issues on which the Republicans have so gracelessly dropped the ball. Clearly the handling of the Foley issue has had an effect on how the electorate views the morality of the Republican Party.

The final question in the poll asked whether the house leadership was more concerned with protecting the teenage pages or their leadership’s own political standing. 79% of the respondents said the principal concern was ass covering (Hastert) rather than ass protecting (the page).

Hastert’s failure to resign has been a boon to the Democrats. Hopefully he will continue his self-absorbed power grab up right up to the November elections.