Sam Brownback and Iraq

While John McCain and Rudy Guliani join the President in supporting the surge, Sam Brownback the champion of the Conservative base comes out strongly in opposition. So, what's up? Noam Schreiber in the Plank -- New Republic Online, suggests it's not so surprising. Being that he's the dark horse, putting yourself as the alternative isn't a bad option, but there's more to it than that.

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. So we're actually talking about a twofer here: shore up your base while positioning yourself to poach votes from the other guys. (Actually, a three-fer, since this has the added merit of being the substantively sane position.) Not bad for a day's work.

Comments

Popular Posts