Polls: And When They Are Good ...
On the other hand, the generic vote for Congress in that same Gallup mid-September 2004 poll had Republicans trailing Democrats 41-45. The final total was a national vote of 50% for Republicans, 48% for Democrats at the Congressional level.
I have mentioned to you before that this cycle felt more like 1998 - when the Dems picked up a net five seats in Clinton's second term mid-term election - than 1994 when Republicans took control of the House.
I have thought this because the Democrats are making the same mistakes this year as we (I was running GOPAC that cycle, so I take my share of the blame for a flawed strategy) made in 1998: It was all anti-Clinton all the time.
The Democrats have placed all their electoral eggs in being all anti-Bush in the same strategic way. They have no positive message and, with less than two months to go, the chances of finally crafting a coordinated national message which will attract a majority of voters in a majority of the Congressional Districts are fading fast.
Of course, the vote for Members of Congress is not a national vote. It is 435 separate elections and while there are only seven weeks to go, there are still seven weeks to go.
Rich Galen
Rich Galen has been a press secretary to Dan Quayle and Newt Gingrich. Rich Galen currently works as a journalist and writes at
Mullings.com.