If Pennsylvania is any indication, GOPers during the last week of Campaign 2006 may want to change the course from talking about staying the course on the war in Iraq since a poll shows it has hurt Rick Santorum:
As U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum makes fighting global terrorism his closing pitch of the campaign, the latest Temple/Inquirer Poll shows that growing doubts about the Iraq war continue to erode support for Republicans.
More voters than a month ago say the war – which remains the defining issue in the November election – has made the country less safe from terrorism, while the percentage saying they feel safer has dropped. At the same time, a majority of voters, 52 percent, want the United States to either decrease troop levels in Iraq or pull out altogether.
In greater numbers than men, women say they feel less safe, disapprove of the Iraq war and President Bush, and prefer Democrats taking over Congress.
All of this has created a drag on Santorum’s campaign and those of Republican House candidates, the poll found.
Over the last month, Santorum has increasingly portrayed himself as the candidate who better understands the threats facing America, hoping to frame the debate around national security rather than Iraq. Last week, he staged a “Gathering Storm” tour – a two-day swing through seven counties to warn that Americans are “sleepwalking” through the threats.
The Temple/Inquirer poll shows Santorum has lost ground to his Democratic opponent, Bob Casey Jr. A month ago, Casey led the two-term senator by 11 points. The latest poll has Casey ahead 54 percent to 38 percent with 6 percent undecided.
The poll is certain to be digested by Republicans running elsewhere…
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.