get donkey!

Dana Milbank aptlydescribes the current economic situation:

A wave of corporate scandals - WorldCom, Tyco, Global Crossing, Adelphia Communications, Andersen, Enron - has hammered consumer confidence and plunged stocks deeper into a bear market. The employment picture is sluggish, the federal budget has returned to the red, and the government must pass a law to borrow more money. The trade deficit is growing, the dollar is falling, and health care costs are rising.

Milbank writes that this dismal situation could stick to Bush and Republican candidates over time. The article posits that Democrats may be able to parlay current economic troubles into a populist campaign strategy.

The article goes on to round up some poll numbers that demonstrate the Dems may be able to find some traction on economic and domestic issues:

In the Pew poll, 35 percent of those who approve of Bush said they would vote for Democrats in the fall - a greater percentage of defectors than the 24 percent of Clinton supporters in 1998 who said they planned to vote Republican. And slightly more voters said they planned to back a Democrat in November than a Republican.

…

Zogby’s latest survey gave Bush a support level of 69 percent - but only 51 percent said Bush deserved to be reelected. At the same time, polls indicate fewer Americans think the country is headed in the right direction. A poll released Wednesday by Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg found that Americans, by 10 percentage points, think the country is on the right track; late last year, the margin was as high as 38 points.

As I have stated before, I still think the best way for Dems to regain control of the House and strengthen their control of the Senate will be to stick to domestic issues during this year’s campaign. It’s a matter of picking the right battles at the right time. At this point Democrats are not going to gain any ground by attacking the war effort or civil liberties issues. The current poll numbers show that the Republicans may be vulnerable on domestic issues. It appears that even in the post 9/11 era, there may still be some truth in the old slogan; “It’s the economy, stupid.”

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