Democrats’ strong showing in recent polls is due more to the “implosion” of the Republican Party than to enthusiastic support for the Democrats themselves, according to political pundit James Carville.
While acknowledging that all signs point toward a Democratic victory in 2008, Carville said he and fellow Democrats “are a little bit of a shell-shocked political party. We somehow or another always figure out a way to blow it.”
The Democrats’ resurgence “is a result of a complete implosion of the Republican Party,” Carville told The Politico.
“This is not like some great enthusiasm for Democrats out there.”
That “implosion” could be blamed on opposition to President Bush over the Iraq war, and the GOP scandals that have tarnished the party’s emphasis on “family values,” The Politico observes. On another front, fiscal conservatives in the GOP have criticized their own party over government spending.
But Carville cautioned: “Democrats could still lose focus, and become what they typically do, a collection of interest groups as opposed to having a national message.”
Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg noted that Republicans “have imploded, but the public is going to want a choice.
“My biggest worry is not what we do but what they do to try and make it an election about security.”
And Democratic strategist Joe Lockhart told The Politico: “I worked for Michael Dukakis when he was 19 points ahead of George [H.W.] Bush, and within six weeks he was 10 points behind. So anything can happen.”
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