Someone on the right, is finally starting to face reality. Finally!
A new poll by widely respected Public Opinion Strategies pollster Glen Bolger has some very interesting data on an important question: What do voters think of the Republic message when it isn’t attached to the GOP label? His data is a perfect way to test whether voters…
A. Like what we have to say but simply don’t trust us after Bush, Iraq, Katrina, overspending, the bridge to nowhere, endless scandals (need I go on?).
Or
B. Don’t like us because they don’t agree with what we say we want to do for the country. – Poll: Is Our Message More Effective Without GOP Label? – (Via The Next Right)
Fester at Newshoggers, weighs in:
OUCH!!! Branding and consistency of messaging is important but only when the ideas are palatable or can be made palatable to a decent fraction of the population. Instead what we are seeing right here is the elements of a realigning movement as the Republican Party is rejecting the Republican Party. Residual loyalty and long-standing brand imaging is currently supporting Republican Party fortunes and not causing disproportionate harm. Staying away from policy and running as a generic sunshine candidate may be the best that most Republicans could do this fall.
John McCain has been trying to run a campaign as an anti-Bush change agent who, on most issues, is presenting standard issue Republican policy tropes and when he is not, he is either ill-informed, unengaged, or seeking minimalist defensive measures instead of proactive solutions such as on greenhouse gases auctions. Right now he is about even in the daily tracking polls although his electoral map is a losing map as of this morning. So this polling information is reassuring that although the McCain Brand is stronger than the Republican brand, his solution set has very little salience with the public.
What he said, and yes, Ouch.
Only thing original that I can bring to this discussion is something that I have said on this Blog many times. Until the Republican Party can shake this Neo-Conservative doctrine of warmongering and the attitude of "We must rule the world" for democracy’s sake. The G.O.P. will be in the state it is now, and that is, in the minority of the political landscape in America.
One the most troubling things that is wrong with America right now is, that America has become so sharply divided, Republicans and Democrats are sworn enemies. President George W. Bush, in his wrong-headed and quite feeble vision to bring democracy to the Middle East, managed to do something else entirely. He managed to put this Nation into a war, that possibly spend us into a recession, that might take us into another depression and also divided the political landscape, to the point where there is a "grand canyon" difference between the political discourses of the Right and Left. Senator Barack Obama seems to believe that he can bridge that Canyon and bring America back together. The problem with Senator Obama is that he lacks the Experience needed to tackle some of the very tough issues facing America at this point. Not to mention that the fact that Obama has some very "interesting" people in his background as well. Speaking as a fellow American Citizen, I can tell you that Americans, Black, White, Hispanic and every other race, will not vote for someone that they know little or nothing about. There is an American and very much a human thing, (for a lack of a better word…) called trust. It can take decades to build and be destroyed within seconds, if it is abused. American’s trust in our Government, was quite frankly, destroyed by President Bush, and I just do not know, if America will be willing to trust a man, that they know little about, to straighten out the mess that Bush and Co. have created.
As hard as it is to believe, not every American sits by their computers or TV and gobbles up every little morsel of politics news that the Main Stream Media and Blogging world heaves out to the General populous to ingest. As a matter of fact, most people simply tune politics out, until Election Day comes. This could, very well present a problem for Obama come the general election in November.
Further Discussion @ Memeorandum