Majority Leader Bill Frist has some political advice for GOPers running for election this year:
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says if Republican candidates want to succeed on Election Day, they should turn their focus away from the Iraq war.
“The challenge is to get Americans to focus on pocketbook issues, and not on the Iraq and terror issue,” Frist said in an interview with the Concord Monitor on Tuesday.
Frist suggested that Republicans remind voters of subjects like tax cuts and lower gas prices, the result, he said, of the energy bill passed by Congress last year.
“These are all things the media has not covered,” Frist said. “People don’t say, ‘This Congress passed tax cuts.’ But that means something to every American.”
VOTER: What do you propose to do to improve our policy on the Iraq War? Frist Advised Politico: I’m glad you asked me that question on the war. Now, let me explain how tax cuts have helped the economy and improved your life…”
It’s an approach sure to work. Voters will surely forget about the war and news stories showing former Bush administration officials such as former Secretary of State James Baker not being impressed with how it’s going. And polls like this underscore Frist’s political brilliance:
Politicians, top administration officials — and editorial writers — may be reluctant to do it, but a majority of Americans now embrace the concept of a speedy U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. A new Gallup poll released today finds that 20% urge an “immediate” pullout with another 34% backing a full withdrawal within one year, for a total of 54%.
Only 9% want to send more troops. The poll of 1,007 adults was taken Oct. 20-22.
The poll also found near record level of 58% calling the war a “mistake.”
Slightly more (21% vs. 19%) say the insurgents, not our forces, are winning , with 58% declaring neither.
About 2 in 10 Democrats say the war is “going well,” compared with nearly 6 in 10 Republicans — but the key is that Independents side very closely (26%) with the Democrats.
As we have noted here and in comments: watch the independent vote. The GOP didn’t achieve its success only with votes from its base.
But perhaps Frist can get the GOP to forget that, too.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.