Democrats Use Strategy of Ambiguity on Iraq

[ECH1969]

President George W. Bush and Republicans have taken a battering over Iraq, but it's not because voters believe Democrats have a clear strategy for ending the conflict and bringing American soldiers home.

"If you ask people out on the street what the message is, they wouldn't know," said Joan Lowery, a 60-year-old insurance company manager, at a recent Democratic fund-raiser in Cincinnati. Lowery is not alone. Only a quarter of Americans think Democrats in the Congress have a clear plan for Iraq, far less than the 36 percent who believe the president has one, a USA Today/Gallup poll in mid-September found.

Ambiguity has been part of the Democratic strategy on Iraq all along and has worked quite well, they said. Democrat Victoria Wulsin, who is trying to unseat Republican incumbent Jean Schmidt in a suburban Cincinnati congressional district, said she had not pushed a stronger anti-war message because the public was divided and it might alienate voters.

Ambiguity makes some Democratic supporters chafe, but they understand party leaders are worried about alienating voters or being tarred as weak on national defense. "It is fear that keeps them from having a clear position," said Paulette Meier, 55, after a meeting of religious liberals in Cincinnati. "They are afraid of being seen as cut and run."

http://www.cbs47.tv/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=18EB3BF5-8F54-49A3-92AD-F6397A2D25CC

[ECH1969]

1. BTTT