Brighter GOP prospects?

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In the 1992 presidential election, Bill Clinton's cunning campaign strategist James Carville summed up the pivotal issue with the now immortal words, "It's the economy, stupid."

Mr. Carville's admonition, which was emblazoned on the walls of Mr. Clinton's fabled campaign "war room," could well apply to this year's congressional elections, too.

While the political battles now are about the war in Iraq and the threat of another terrorist attack, several polls found voters' overwhelming concern heading into September was the U.S. economy's performance. It has been getting consistently poor marks from voters all year, despite sturdy growth (an annual year-over-year rate of more than 31/2 percent) and low unemployment (4.7 percent).

But pollsters conducting internal election surveys for the Republicans tell me that these persistently sour voter attitudes about the economy have begun improving. One reason: Significantly lower oil and gasoline prices that fell sharply last week as a result of increased drilling production, rosier forecasts of fewer Gulf storms that could threaten operation of offshore oil rigs, and an easing of global tensions over the oil-rich Middle East. "We're seeing that as gas prices have come down, attitudes about the direction of the economy have improved," said pollster David Winston who does election issue polling for the GOP.

Voter concern about the top two or three issues has moved in tandem with events in Iraq, the foiled terrorist bomb plot in Great Britain, soaring oil and gas prices that topped $3 a gallon for regular earlier this year. And for the last year Iraq, terrorism and the economy jockeyed for first place.

But lately, even as the political rhetoric over Iraq and terrorism were ratcheted up by President Bush and the Democrats, polls began to show Americans were actually more concerned about the economy and pocketbook issues closer to home.

When the CNN/Opinion Research poll asked 1,004 Americans Sept. 4-5 what issue was most important to their congressional vote, 28 percent said the economy, followed by Iraq at 25 percent and terrorism at 18 percent. Moral issues (15 percent) and immigration (14 percent) were fourth and fifth respectively.

The same poll showed voters giving the economy failing grades, with 56 percent rating it "poor," compared to 44 percent who said it was "good."

An Aug. 29-30 Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll of 900 registered voters reported similar findings about what troubles people most. When asked "which one of the following issues will be most important in deciding your vote for Congress this fall?" 23 percent said the economy, compared to 14 percent who said Iraq, and 12 percent who said terrorism. Health care at 11 percent and immigration at 9 percent were fourth and fifth, followed by 8 percent who named gas prices, which had not yet begun their steep descent.

Notably, despite the deep pessimism supposedly gripping the electorate this year, the same poll found 58 percent of the voters said the quality of life for most people in their area was either "excellent" (11 percent) or "good" (47 percent), followed by 29 percent who said "only fair" and 12 percent who said "poor."