TBV Feature: If the Democrats don't get too frightened when a big majority agrees with them, they might win

Jules Witcover talks about Russ Feingold in A rare Bush victory in the Senate over Tribune Media Service 03/05/06:

Feingold has been among the most outspoken Senate critics of the war in Iraq and is known to be considering a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. He spent a major part of his time over recent months fighting for revisions in the Patriot Act to provide greater civil liberties protections.

Even in this defeat, his effort has given him considerable public visibility and can solidify support for him, if he chooses to run, among liberal activists who customarily play a large role in the nomination process.

Feingold was the first Democratic senator to call on Bush to spell out publicly a timetable for withdrawing from Iraq, urging the end of 2006 as the target. Until recently, talk of withdrawal from Iraq was politically risky. It still is, but the latest Gallup Poll for CNN showing that only 35 percent of those surveyed now support the president on the war in Iraq probably makes it less so.

And there's still some risk in withdrawal talk.


But with over 80% of the public expecting civil war in Iraq and large majorities saying they don't think the Iraq War was worth it, public dissatisfaction with the war reached the levels criticism of the Vietnam War did, and considerably faster. The Iraq War will almost certainly be remembered as a bigger mistake than the Vietnam War.

With those kinds of poll numbers, and with conservatives now scrambling to get themselves off the hook for having supported this, the bigger risk for the Democrats at this point is not emphasizing opposition to the war.

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