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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Baker who wrote (28027)	9/3/2006 8:37:35 PM
From: JohnM	Respond to of 540987

The person who did that, discovered it was a failed dead end, and did it with such grace that we could all learn from it was George Packer, in his Assassin's Gate book. If you haven't taken a cut at it yet, I recommend it. Highly. As important as Ricks' Fiasco, but in a different way. Packer bought Paul Berman's (not Bremer) vision of the equation between fundamentalist Islamism and fascism, as well as the notion that Saddam was a kind of fascist. That what was needed was a kind of campaign against authoritarianism in the mold of Hannah Arendt and Albert Camus' books on the same. He saw the Iraq invasion as a way to address that, guided, to some extent, by one of the Iraqi exiles, name escapes me as I type. Well known. Lectured at Harvard, Boston University, around the US. For Packer, his book was a difficult retelling of an emotional journey as he came to realize that the Bush people just got it all wrong.

To: Dale Baker who wrote (28027)	9/3/2006 8:44:54 PM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 540987

I believe Rasmussen is held in some regards around here.... Partisan Trends: Number of Republicans Declines to 32-Month Low September 1, 2006 The number of Americans calling themselves Republican has fallen to its lowest level in more than two-and-a-half years. Just 31.9% of American adults now say they’re affiliated with the GOP. That’s down from 37.2% in October 2004 and 34.5% at the beginning of 2006. These results come from Rasmussen Reports tracking surveys of 15,000 voters per month and have a margin of sampling error smaller than a percentage point. The number of Democrats has grown slightly, from 36.1% at the beginning of the year to 37.3% now. Those who claim to be unaffiliated have increased to 30.8% this month. That’s the highest total recorded since Rasmussen Reports began releasing this data in January 2004. Add it all together and the Democrats have their biggest net advantage—more than five percentage points—since January 2004. In the first month of 2006, the Democrats’ advantage was just 1.6 percentage points. Last month, 32.8% of adults said they were Republicans and 36.8% identified themselves as Democrats. While the party affiliation trends continue moving in the Democrats’ direction, the battle for control of the Senate keeps getting closer. Our September 1 update of the Senate Balance of Power summary shows Republicans likely to emerge from Election 2006 with 50 seats, Democrats with 47, and 3 in the Toss-Up category. The President’s Job Approval ratings continue to hover around the 40% mark and voters everywhere believe the political system is badly broken. Please keep in mind that figures reported in this article are for all adults, not Likely Voters. Republicans typically do a bit better among Likely Voters (in fact, the two parties ended up even among those who showed up to vote in 2004).