David Broder, The Washington Post, October 7, 2007
The day had been full of ominous warnings. Polls showed the Republicans on the losing side of almost every issue and the 2008 presidential race — and now they’re forced to defend a controversial veto of a popular children’s health bill.
But Tom Cole, the 58-year-old Oklahoma representative who this year took on the responsibility for running the GOP’s congressional campaign, was remarkably sanguine — considering.
He had been reading about the Post-ABC News poll showing that Hillary Rodham Clinton had established a commanding lead for the Democratic presidential nomination and was beating Rudy Giuliani, the current Republican front-runner, 51 percent to 43 percent in a hypothetical matchup.
The same poll showed President Bush’s approval rating at 33 percent, equaling his historic low, and congressional Republicans’ even lower, at 29 percent, the lowest ever recorded for them. Democrats are trusted more than Republicans when it comes to handling Iraq, health care, the economy and the federal budget, the poll said, and the two parties are tied on terrorism — supposedly the Republicans’ strong suit.
So how could he be reasonably satisfied with his party’s prospects? The answer: The Democrats are also looking like dogs.