Poll: Senate GOP Leader Barely Ahead In Re-Election Race

[Yellowdogtexan]

This is not good news for Mitch McConnell http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/poll_senate_gop_leader_barely.phpIn what is shaping up as a plum pickup opportunity for Senate Dems in a very unlikely place, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell could be in for a very serious race this fall, according to a new SurveyUSA poll of Kentucky.

The numbers: McConnell 50%, Democratic businessman Bruce Lunsford 46%, within the ±4% margin of error. A Rasmussen poll from a few weeks ago gave Lunsford the lead, coming right off of his primary victory.

McConnell has had the unenviable task of defending President Bush's Iraq positions on a daily basis. If the political environment turns out to be such that the Democrats can win this one, then the GOP will start finding it very difficult to prevent the Dems from getting a 60-seat majority.It used to be a rule that one party did not target the other party's leaders but the republicans violated that rule ni 2004. It would be nice to get rid of McConnell by forcing him to defend each and every one of bush's policies right up unitl the election.

[Yellowdogtexan]

Here is some more on the GOP Senate Minority Leader being in trouble http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/23/mitch-mcconnells-senate-s_n_108642.htmlSenate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was never expected to be challenged for his seat. A four-term incumbent from a deeply red state, his favorability ratings in Kentucky have stayed steadily over the 50 percent mark for much of the past year. But with the rapid disintegration of the Republican brand and with several self-made political missteps, McConnell now finds himself drawn into an electoral match-up once deemed an afterthought. A recent Survey USA poll had him beating his challenger Bruce Lunsford by a scant four percentage points: 50 percent to 46 percent.

"We have seen all along, even before there was a [Democratic[ candidate, that the voters of Kentucky want change, and at this point they are not getting it from their Senator," said Chuck Schumer, head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, when asked if picking off McConnell's post was an honest possibility. "I think it's the war -- the voters of Kentucky want a change of course on the war, gas prices. People just don't want the status quo."

In some ways, McConnell's political future is out of his hands. The congressional leader of the Republican Party, he's been tasked with carrying the president's water in defense of the Iraq war and as a legislative obstructionist. The part has not always suited him well. That his electoral prospects have grown dimmer in the process is one of the more poignant political developments of this election. Indeed, should McConnell ultimately lose his seat, it would mark a symbolic bookend to the president's second term - a four year period that began with the defeat of the Democrats' Senate leader (Tom Daschle) and a euphoric sense of conservative promise, only to fall apart with as much embarrassment as rapidity.

"I think the analogy is imperfect," said Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, when asked about the Daschle-McConnell comparison. "On two fronts: the first is Daschle was from basically a strongly Republican state and had managed to win in the House and Senate because of his personality... But when you get a different level of national viability as a majority leader, you are in a more precarious position, because there is a wave that can overcome affections. Could Mitch McConnell be caught in a wave? Yes. But it will have to be against the state's natural tides."

[issac the dragon]

McConnell has been a driving force behind every lousy move the Bushies have made. When the R.'s were in charge, he didn't care how bad Bush's policies screwed the people in this country. Anything Bush wanted, Bush got. And he was a major mover in driving the debt sky high. I hope he loses badly. Every politician needs to be taught a lesson once in a while. But hey, he'll just go to work for some big business he helped, and probably make $5 million a year.