Iraq Erodes Bush Popularity in Florida

by Peter Wallsten

In a state that could tip the balance in next year's election, President Bush has lost support. No challenger is more popular than he is, though.

Florida put Bush in the White House in 2000, but one year before he faces reelection, voters in the nation's most populous swing state are increasingly concerned about his leadership on Iraq, according to a new poll.

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The result is likely to be troubling for White House strategists as they lay plans for another fierce campaign. Just more than four in 10 respondents said they would vote for Bush if the election were held now, while they were evenly divided on wether the country was headed in the right direction.

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"It seemed like the right thing to do after 9/11, but I don't know anymore," Dunlap said. "It just seems to be going on and on and there are more casualties every day. I think it is time to come back home"

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/7419080.htm

Small poll (800) but I think the quote above could serve as the Dems caimpaign cry: Time To Come Back Home....

Though I have no doubt that a Dem should win Florida in a fair contest, I do severely doubt there WILL be a fair contest in Florida. We shouldn't count on Florida at all, the election system in Florida is beyond corrupted...

and is sending this country into bankruptcy...especially with the medicare bill that people in Florida will see as a sellout driven by him.

It seems the Pubs are guessing their way thru this thing. Sad, but true

The Bushistas are trying but its like a coach who jus don't have it, they keep losing the close games. Saddam/Osama 746585905867 Bush 2

Time for a new coach in there.

Damn, right it's time for Bush to come back home, to his brother's house and then show that Fake Texan what a true Southern Political Ass Whoopin is all about. We're organizing for Clark down here on the panhandle, but if Dean wins then we'll shift that organization to Dean. Whatever, we may not win the Florida Panhandle (Pensacola to the Big Bend area), but it's the very heart of the GOP stronghold on this state. And we are going to fight and take back every stinking vote they stole from us in 2000. And we're starting right in their own backyard. I know the paranoia out there about voting machines and Jeb Bush, but you just wait and see...we're getting ourselves organized in their own backyard down here.

...I'm living in Tallahassee (aka The Capital of Florida Political Chicanery) and I plan to campaign my ass off for Dean/Clark. 2000 was one of the worst years of my life. I still don't even know if my vote was counted.

we have a huge grassroots organization...we are the only blue in a sea of red counties in Florida...I've been to Clark's and Dean's (I just cant make up my mind!!) and they are both large...Dean about 200 (just in Gainesville) and Clark about 55...

Orange County (Orlando) went for Gore in 2000.

I was in Indonesia at the time but someone please tell me how in the hell people thought that we should start killing innocent people in other countries to make up for our losses??
It was Fucking wrong then and it is Fucking wrong now!!! Not just because precious Americans are being killed!!! BECAUSE KILLING IS WRONG NO MATTER WHERE THE FUCK YOU WERE BORN. But according to this guy, he thought it was okay to kill Iraqi women and children but now that american soldiers are being slaughtered well...maybe he isnt so sure. I think Dems campaign cry should be:

BUSH IS AN IDIOT..HE WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY, RAPE YOUR LAND, AND KILL YOUR KIDS, SO GET A FUCKING CLUE

"There doesn't seem to be an end to this," said Bonita Dunlap, one of the survey respondents. A Republican and registered nurse in Port St. Lucie, Dunlap said she voted for Bush in 2000 but is increasingly nervous about the war, in part because her brother-in-law has been deployed.

"It seemed like the thing to do after 9/11, but I don't know anymore,'' Dunlap said. ``It just seems to be going on and on and there are more casualties every day. I think it's time to come back home."

Apparently Ms. Dunlap is one of the few people who haven't yet figured out that 9/11 had nothing to do with Iraq. I pity anyone who has to get medical treatment from this idiot.

as a registered nurse, she might treat you for a headache instead of stopping your bleeding...

Oh sorry about the same thing for him!!!

Precisely.....trot out Ms. Dunlap, "average Rep. voter" and say look,
She thought 9/11 and Iraq were one and the same thing. Who told her that?

Most of them still believe it is one in the same. I mean they did come up with some half-assed memo last week so you know well that proves it right?

"It seemed like the right thing to do after 9/11, but I don't know anymore," Dunlap said. "It just seems to be going on and on and there are more casualties every day. I think it is time to come back home"

These are the mindless legions of Americans who are going to lead us all down the path of destruction, and then say after there is absolutely no hope of turning back, "oh, but I didn't know it was going to be like this." Ms. Dunlap is most likely part of the same crew that was calling for the dismantling of the UN before the illegal invasion, but did a total turn-around and began demanding more participation from the very same "irrelevant" UN after it became obvious that the word coalition forces mainly means just us.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

It is good to talk to people that have a clue

we are going to vote in droves for the democrats. You see, all the old fogies voted last time, but much of the youth didn't. That's changing now. Oh by the way, sorry about the last elections - remember we're living under 2 Bushes, which is 2 bushes too many.

...of Florida voters in 2002. JebFRAUD's response? A "devious plan" in which the "education governor" did away with the requirement for the twelfh grade. Now junior and missy can go work for $6.50 an hour, one year earlier. Not too many parents could be happy about this. Dim son's "no child left behind" nonsense will be viewed in this context.

Medicare, education, Iraq, voter registration,

and I'll add another - lots of older folks feel it just "isn't right" that an election was decided in the Supreme Court. They won't use the word "stolen" or "fraud" but they haven't forgotten.

...are issues which piss off conservatives and elderly, respectively. Education issues piss off parents who can't work the system like some of the professional parents do. I'm not up on the Cuban community. I don't live in south Florida.

I believe that the electoral process was abused in in Florida in 2002 and will be again in 2004. The question is whether the backlash could be big enough to overcome the fraudulent activities during the elections.

One other issue which may not be resolvable as a practical matter for the democratic party is this mistaken notion that the state legislature can ignore the popular election and appoint a different slate of electors as they threatened to do in 2000. I think this was a constitutional crisis in the making which played a role in Gore backing down. Such a process totally discredits government.

Citizens of FLA will NOT stand by and watch their state get stolen again! There will be riots in the streets!

They will really get their asses kicked!!

Believe it when I see it.

Because there is no doubt in my mind that Jeb is planning to do it again.

And Florida will just take it.

It will be the closest watched in the nation in 2004.

I think because of 2000 we have the best chance of a fair tally of any election in the last 30 years down here.

The other thing is that we (the democrats) learned just how the repugs had been working the system in their favor. They did not start this in 2000, I am quite sure that the set of tricks and tactics they used have been developed and used over quite some time.

We will be watching closely.

1. Maybe the African-American community will be allowed to vote;
2. Those that are identified as 'Criminals' and not having the
right to should request a 'Special ballot' which enables them
to vote, although the ballot is later reviewed to ascertain the
legality of their vote. But if a legal ballot, it should be
counted. (In otherwords, vote, even when your right to vote is
challenged).
3. Hopefully, the Jewish community that voted for Buchanan (sic)
might choose to vote for the Dems.
4. The Muslim community that voted 70% (from what I read) for
Bush in 2000, may choose to reconsider that vote in 2004.
5. The Green Party - well after one term of Bush, if Bush is
elected in 2004 - there won't be anything green in America,
except the payoffs to the corrupt GOP party machine.
6. I have to think that even a few Bubbas' have to have second
thoughts about having this man in the White House.
7. I suspect that the Bush team may not want to count the Oversea
military Absentee ballots as they seemed to want to do in 2000.
8. Finally, if we don't have the will to fight for our right to
exercise our rights in this country, then we should lose them.
Give 1 or 2 of those little GOP political aides, like the ones
that rioted outside the political offices in 2000, a good ass
whipping, and I assure you, the rest will be glad to return DC;
doing what they do best, kiss GOP ass (away from the fight).