Bush is a failed president, the GOP are failed leaders. They've got nothing to run on. They're in trouble and are really hoping that they can exploit the latest terror incident (which was so terrible that Bush stayed on vacation).
But times have changed. This year, the Dems. are fighting back hard on the terror issue. All the Republicans have is their worn out talking point from '02 and '04, that 9/11 = terror = Iraq war.:
The strategist, who is involved in GOP efforts to capitalize on the issue of national security, said one of the big challenges in the months ahead will be "making sure the terrorism issue sticks to Iraq." With some GOP candidates distancing themselves from Bush's Iraq policy, the strategist said, it has been difficult marrying the issues of terrorism and Iraq. This is disturbing to top GOP officials because support for the war is low, and dropping, and Iraq is a bigger issue in many of the campaigns than the less-defined effort against terrorism, the strategist said.It probably doesn't help the GOP strategy when GOP candidates keep distancing themselves. Just yesterday, Representative Joan Davis called for Rumsfeld's resignation questioning his judgments on Iraq:
U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Davis has joined the growing chorus of those who believe Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should be out of a job.Iraq's a disaster. It didn't help the war on terror. It made it worse and we're not safer. This year, a lot of Americans understand that...and it's freaking out the GOP.
"I told my husband that when (Sen.) Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) came out and said he should resign, it's probably the only thing in my life I've ever agreed with Hillary Clinton about," said Davis, R-Gloucester.
