One of the problems with this thesis: the issues that Democrats believe they can win on because "majorities of the public tend to agree with" them, are issues that NO ONE disagrees with. Who doesn't want clean water; clean air; better jobs; etc? The problem is, none of those are things that require government to hold our hands for them to occur.
"The problem begins with the fact that majorities of the public tend to agree with Democrats on the issues. This isn't universally true, of course, but it's true with regard to more issues (perhaps many more issues) than not. On health care, the environment, investment, education, just about everything except national defense, majorities lean toward the Democratic position.
This sounds like a good thing. But in fact, it's an incredibly bad thing, because it leads Democrats to believe that they can win on the issues. So a Democratic presidential candidate's pollster goes out into the field and comes back with data proving that 54 of percent of the people are with us on this issue, and 61 percent of them are with us on that one, and so on. And so the pollster tells the candidate, 'Just talk about the issues, and everything will be ducky.' "
CBS News The Pathetic Truth September 14, 2004�12:07:59:
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