Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Kennedy's Problems
Yesterday, the Minneapolis Star Tribune published results from a recent North Star Poll showing Republican Senate candidate Mark Kennedy losing to Democrat Amy Klobuchar by 56 to 32.
Now this particular polling outfit has a history of wrong calls. Some national commentators have referred to it as the leading example of a ‘broken’ poll. On one three-way Governors race they not only called the wrong winner but blew the second and third place result as well!
A recent Gallup poll mentioned in the article shows a 10-point lead for Klobuchar. Probably a lot more accurate, but still a big problem 50 days out from the election.
So why is Kennedy having such a hard time? It’s not like he’s readily identified with Bush, bucking the White House on ANWR energy recovery, for one. In fact, to my mind, he’s not really identifiable for any one issue or series of stands. As a result, he hasn’t energized the Minnesota GOP base. The few TV spots that I’ve seen so far have been of the ‘nice guy’ touchy-feely kind of thing.
If Kennedy wants to get things going, he’s going to have to start carving out an identifiable right-leaning niche for himself. One good place to start would be support of the NSA surveillance bill that’s currently making its way through the Senate committee works right now; it would codify historically accepted (and court tested) warrentless telephone surveillance. Klobuchar wants a ‘warrant only’ policy when it comes to eavesdropping on terrorists. But the public generally supports warrentless wiretaps from Al Qeada sources into the U.S.
Terrorism is back at the top of the list of voter concerns. Kennedy can and should use that to his advantage.
Now this particular polling outfit has a history of wrong calls. Some national commentators have referred to it as the leading example of a ‘broken’ poll. On one three-way Governors race they not only called the wrong winner but blew the second and third place result as well!
A recent Gallup poll mentioned in the article shows a 10-point lead for Klobuchar. Probably a lot more accurate, but still a big problem 50 days out from the election.
So why is Kennedy having such a hard time? It’s not like he’s readily identified with Bush, bucking the White House on ANWR energy recovery, for one. In fact, to my mind, he’s not really identifiable for any one issue or series of stands. As a result, he hasn’t energized the Minnesota GOP base. The few TV spots that I’ve seen so far have been of the ‘nice guy’ touchy-feely kind of thing.
If Kennedy wants to get things going, he’s going to have to start carving out an identifiable right-leaning niche for himself. One good place to start would be support of the NSA surveillance bill that’s currently making its way through the Senate committee works right now; it would codify historically accepted (and court tested) warrentless telephone surveillance. Klobuchar wants a ‘warrant only’ policy when it comes to eavesdropping on terrorists. But the public generally supports warrentless wiretaps from Al Qeada sources into the U.S.
Terrorism is back at the top of the list of voter concerns. Kennedy can and should use that to his advantage.
# posted by Ricard : 8:42 PM
