The GOP would point out -- and they would be right -- that the approval rating in the autumn before an election is not a good predictor of how the election will turn out,
Americans may rally around a president when he sends troops to war but not when he sends them the bill.
I think that's one of the things that made people start thinking differently about Vice President Bush in early 1988, where they started to see him come out on his own, become his own man, win a few,
Part of it is his resume, part of it is his announcement bounce, part of it may simply be that he's a fresh face. He is, after all, the flavor of the month.
It's difficult to tell from these poll results how the speech will affect general U.S. public,
The tripwire for the administration may be as they see support for ground troops growing, that may be only ground troops with no casualties,
Many Americans did not watch the speech. Those who did were 2-to-1 Republican, so most were arguably already in the president's camp.
It's possible that some people are thinking that the ground troops will face almost no casualties, as happened in the Persian Gulf,
So the pressure is on Kerry to meet expectations. And let's not forget the good news for the White House in this poll: Bush is still seen as a stronger leader who would better deal with Iraq and terrorism,
The American public really starts to dislike a president after six, seven, eight years. They want change, they know they're not going to get it from the incumbent, and they suspect that the incumbent's sidekick is also not going to bring it about,
