Regarding the War, Security, and Energy, as pertains to the Elections this year, and the coming future, please see below.
thank you.

this is from the TomPaine.com site....................10/28/06

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A Progressive Message Resonates

There is more proof in the past 24 hours that a majority of the public is siding with progressives on the war in Iraq and on the economy.

The latest Democracy Corps memo, released Thursday, says that there is a broad rejection of Bush administration policies that will on Election Day take Democrats to levels “unimagined … just a few weeks ago.”

That poll says that Democrats now lead the House congressional horserace by 13 points, a surge in support that takes the Democrats up to 54 percent of the vote and doubles their lead from two weeks ago. In competitive Senate races, Democrats overall are ahead by 10 points, the memo by pollster Stan Greenberg said.

That rejection is also reflected in a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. According to the poll, 57 percent have an unfavorable view of the job President Bush is doing as president, as opposed to 38 percent who approve. Fifty-two percent disapprove of the way he is handling the economy and 63 percent disapprove of his handling of Iraq.

Likewise, 61 percent in the Democracy Corps poll say had negative attitudes toward administration policy in Iraq. “There will be a wave on November 7, with the Iraq issue critical to its strength,” the Democracy Corps memo said.

Greenberg’s assessment is that Republican attempts to nationalize security issues as a way to maintain their hold on the electorate have backfired as conditions in Iraq have deteriorated.

“In open-ended questions about why the country is off track, what they wish the candidates would be saying or doing, why they are supporting candidates, and why they are more enthusiastic to vote, nearly half the electorate mentioned getting out of Iraq in response to one or more of the questions, far outpacing mentions of any other issue,” the memo said.

Democrats, according to the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, remain vulnerable on “dealing with the war on terrorism” and on “promoting strong moral values.” But the poll suggests that voters, more than ever, have rejected Bush’s view of the war on Iraq: Not only are a significant majority pessimistic about the direction the war is going, but a majority now believes that Bush has not given good reasons for keeping troops there.

That poll did not ask the key question of whether troops should withdraw now or withdraw based on some relatively firm, fast timetable.

Greenberg wrote in his memo that comments he has heard during his polling reveal “a lot of frustration with the economy, a middle class squeezed by prices (health care and gas) that are rising and wages falling, jobs that don’t pay as much and are leaving the country. As many voters mention this collection of economic issues as mention Iraq. Indeed, some of the frustration with Iraq is the belief that Iraq keeps the country, the Republican Congress and the president from addressing, or even thinking about, the squeezed middle class. In the survey, a large majority said they wanted this election to be about the financial pressures on people, rather than security and terrorism (55 to 39 percent).”

Of those asked in the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll which party they would prefer control Congress, 52 percent said they would prefer Democrats, compared to 38 percent Republicans. Only 39 percent were willing to say their current representative “deserves to be reelected.”

Greenberg concludes that a winning issue for Democrats in the final stretch will be energy independence. “It is the one issue that gives people hope we can be more secure, get beyond Iraq, and also have a stronger economy that creates American jobs,” he writes.

The broader message is that when progressives talk about America being less secure—not simply as a result of rogue terrorists but more significantly because of misguided economic policies and a disastrous occupation of Iraq —they are tapping into the mainstream of voter sentiment.