Matt Ortega

Gallup published a new poll that shows the American people trust the Democrats with the country’s national security policy over the Republicans.

As all you regulars know, for months now pundits have hung on to the notion that the GOP still holds an advantage on national security issues, despite the fact that multiple polls have shown that this traditional GOP edge has been all but wiped out.

Now, however, Gallup has released a poll concluding that for the first time in its polling, Dems have a clear advantage on the issue:

Greg Sargent comments:

Five years and thousands of deaths in Iraq later, the lines have crossed and for the first time in Gallup polling, Dems lead the GOP on the issue, 47%-42%. While that’s within the poll’s margin of error, Gallup views this development as so significant that it’s now describing Dems as the “national security party.” As Gallup points out, in 2002 the GOP had an extraordinary 19-point lead over Dems. The next year Bush strutted around on the aircraft carrier and the GOP held a 15-point advantage. Now all that’s evaporated and been replaced by a Dem lead. [emphasis added]

The dawning of the Democrats as the “national security party” in the minds of the American public has created a “September 12 moment” for national Democrats.

It signifies an historic shift in public opinion providing an incredible opportunity that can be just as easily squandered — just as the Bush administration squandered the goodwill from around the globe following September 11.

(Hat tip: Oliver Willis)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25, 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. The views expressed are of the author, and the author alone, and do not reflect the views of the Democratic National Committee.