One of the key characteristics of recent polls is the slow loss of support of George Bush of some of his Republican base. Red State has this eloquent example of why some GOPers feel disgruntled:
I have never been a believer in single issue voting. I believe that a responsible voter must weigh all of the positions of a given candidate and vote for the candidate who’s positions come closest to his or her own policy preferences in the majority. For example, mainy here at RedState advocated sitting out upcoming elections if President Bush’s nominees for the Supreme Court were not sufficiently conservative. I argued that doing so would only serve to help elect a future president or Congress that would never nominate or confirm a judicial conservative. I am not a big fan of staying home on Election Day. Especially not when doing so would help to elect people with whom I fundamentally disagree on most issues.
With the Senate Republicans announcing their Great Compromise on immigration reform, it will be in fashion in the coming days to excoriate them for pandering to the Hispanic community, abandoning conservative princples, and failing to stand up for the rule of law. Some may, once again, advocate apathy on Election Day. However, the Senate is not where the fault should lie for this bad carnival show of an immigration policy.
The fault, and my anger and profound disappointment, are directed at the White House.
Read the rest.
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.