The Crossed Pond

Byron York quotes a new Gallup poll asking for opinions about named candidates on particular issues.

The only place that a Republican candidate does significantly well is on the ‘War on Terror’, where Giuliani and McCain are close to tied:

• Giuliani 69
• McCain 66
• Clinton 55
• Obama 53
• Edwards 48
• Thompson 42
• Romney 38

As York points out, in terms of public opinion, McCain’s stronger than he is considered to be in DC; presumably most of America isn’t that interested in McCain’s campaign woes, but just in what they see, so the problems will take a while to filter through to outcomes which most of the electorate care about. Romney’s spent a lot of money, his own and supporters’, to achieve relatively little, although to be fair he’s not aiming at the general population yet, just at a part of the Republican electorate.

The real take-home message here, though, is that Giuliani, or McCain, are facing a struggle even if they won the nomination. Turning a 15 point advantage on terrorism, whilst carrying a lag on nearly everything else, into victory on the national scale, that is threading a needle. Why, it’s almost as if they’d have to increase public fear of terrorism to make that issue a clincher.