There has been some debate over Sam Brownback’s position on the Iraq war.
First, of all, the visuals were pretty good. By announcing his position from Iraq, he got a certain kind of credibility. A sort of, "I’m here, I can see what’s going on, and I think it’s a lousy idea."
Second, there’s some political logic to it. Brownback may be trying to lock down his constituency. As TNR’s The Plank noted:
More interestingly, the move turns out to be pretty welcome among Brownback’s desired base of social conservatives. While 52 percent of Republicans support the surge according to a just-released AP/Ipsos poll, some 60 percent of white evangelicals oppose it, as do 56 percent of self-described conservatives.
I’m willing to bet that Iowa caucus-going conservatives are even more anti-war than that.
And with MoveOn’s ads attacking McCain next week in Iowa, it will be interesting to see where Romney goes. More squeeze on him as I have discussed before, and John Mercurio echoed yesterday.
4 Comments
eyeon08.com » More thoughts on Diageo/Hotline poll: Security · January 24, 2007 at 10:02 AM
[…] By coming out against the Surge, Sam Brownback is trying to shoot for that 19% that are opposed to the war. One could imagine that a group of those voters, combined with a good chunk of the 7% moral values and 5% religious/moral/family decline voters, could be a powerful voting block. Furthermore, an anti-surge GOP Presidential nominee will get a lot of free media as the issue moves through Congress. […]
eyeon08.com » Duncan Hunter attacks Romney over Iraq plan · April 3, 2007 at 5:38 PM
[…] Has Mitt Romney joined his father as one of the rare "peace candidates" in a GOP primary? Is he trying to suck up Chuck Hagel’s space? Or does he just think that Sam Brownback might have been on to something? In any case, Duncan Hunter found his prey and is attacking: "Romney is absolutely wrong in recommending a secret timetable," Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., tells ABC News in a telephone interview while campaigning in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "Secret timetables are bad because in the end they all become public and the enemy uses them to estimate the limit on America’s endurance." […]
eyeon08.com » Interesting new IA poll: They don’t like Iraq · April 4, 2007 at 1:39 PM
[…] I have argued for a while that the Iowa GOP is more anti-war than other states. This would also explain Mitt Romney’s recent flip-flop on Iraq. […]
eyeon08.com » Two new Iraq talking points? · September 27, 2007 at 10:11 AM
[…] Sam Brownback, the other half of Biden-Brownback, is counting on Republican activists being less pro-war than public opinion holds. There is polling evidence to support this. […]
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