New Hampshire forecast aside: some campaign givens

[trof]

By Dante Chinni
Christian Science Monitor

"...But despite the hype and pseudo-events in New Hampshire this week - the rallies, the hockey, the scream analysis - the most significant news didn't come from the Granite State. It came from, of all things, a poll. A Newsweek survey showed that 52 percent of Americans want a new occupant in the White House next January, while 44 percent want Bush reelected. The poll, taken after Bush had center stage at the State of the Union, suggests that as voters begin to pay attention to the campaign, they have some doubts about the president's job performance. It's only a snapshot in time, of course, subject to a lot of change. But it has damaged one of Bush's biggest weapons, his air of inevitability.

For months Democrats have been wondering who the best candidate is to beat Bush. The numbers suggest all that talk was not idle chatter and give new significance to Tuesday night's results."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0127/p09s01-codc.html