Wednesday, September 24, 2008

McCain's Anger "Problem"   [Rich Lowry]

McCain's anger has generated a lot of consternation lately. The Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll Kathryn noted suggests it has stood him in good stead. This isn't surprising. I heard a briefing on an extensive survey of independent voters a month or two ago and what you took away from it was waves, and waves of anger. McCain would have absolutely no chance of winning unless he found a way to capture it—especially now with the financial crisis. Here's the Journal story on the poll:

A near-record 73% of voters said the nation is off on the wrong track, up six points from just last month. More people think the nation is in a "state of decline." Nearly eight in 10 voters think the nation is in a recession and most of them think the worst of it is yet to come. And public opinion ticked down for every public figure and institution the poll asked about, including President George W. Bush, Sens. McCain and Obama and both political parties.

It makes the electorate ripe for Sen. McCain's populist message, Mr. Hart said, recalling the classic movie, "Network," where TV news anchor Howard Beale urges viewers to proclaim, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore."

"John McCain has become the Howard Beale of this election," Mr. Hart said.

The survey finds that Sen. Obama has lost ground with the independent voters who will be crucial to the outcome of the election. They now favor Sen. McCain by 13 percentage points, up from eight points two weeks ago. In early September, just after both parties' conventions, half of independent voters had a positive image of Sen. Obama; now it's just 39%. Independents were also less likely to say they could identify with his background and values than they were in early September.

Also, note this:

The Journal/NBC News poll comes a day after a national poll conducted for the Washington Post and ABC News found Sen. Obama with a nine-point lead. Mr. Hart, the Journal's Democratic pollster, argued that these results were skewed because their sample included a disproportionate number of Democrats. Democrats had a 16-point advantage in the Post/ABC poll, which is considerably higher than most polls have found historically and even this year.

Not surprisingly, the McCain campaign thinks the WSJ/NBC poll is about where the race is, and that after staring into the abyss, McCain began to rebound late last week. He's continued to strengthen since, with his leadership numbers in particular going up.

I continue, however, to think the campaign's message lacks three things: agenda, agenda, agenda.

09/24 11:48 PMShare