Opinion: My, we’re a cranky lot
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And it’s not just the war.
The daily Poll Track column at the National Journal collates a few disparate surveys this morning and finds that, to quote another politician in another time, we’re in something of a national malaise. As Poll Track points out:
‘A full two-thirds of respondents to a new Marist/WNBC poll said they believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, a 9-point increase from fall 2006. Harris’ ‘Alienation Index’ has also risen slightly since last year, as more Americans told pollsters this month that they feel the nation’s leaders don’t care about them and are out of touch with the country at large. ‘Considering such widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo, it’s no wonder 58 percent of registered voters responding to a new Gallup/USA Today poll said the outcome of the 2008 presidential race matters more to them than previous elections. For many months the conventional wisdom had placed the blame for the public’s angst squarely on President Bush and the Iraq war. But recent polls suggest that Americans are increasingly worried about traditional bread-and-butter issues, too.’
And the butter has been melting. So it’s a ‘pox on both their houses’ mood out there, though other polls show that more people think the Democrats are better suited to straighten the mess out than the Republicans. Those sentiments won’t mean much in the primaries and caucuses, but they will come next November. And of course anything can happen between now and then to change the current mood.
But you have to wonder what might have happened had the national elections been this week instead of next year, and how many babies would have gone out with the bathwater.
-- Scott Martelle