Democrats Turned War Into an Ally
The Strategy
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
New York Times
This article was reported by Adam Nagourney, Jim Rutenberg and Jeff Zeleny and written by Mr. Nagourney.
On a warm night in mid-September, Representative Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois Democrat leading his party’s campaign to win back the House, stood in front of I Ricchi, a stylish Italian restaurant in downtown Washington, screaming at an aide who happened to be in his sight.
Why, he demanded, had Iraq fallen off the front pages and the evening news, replaced by President Bush’s weeklong commemoration of the Sept. 11 anniversary? How could Democrats win if this unpopular war was fought uncovered? As he headed in for dinner, he pronounced himself as despondent about his party’s hopes as he had been all year.
Two weeks later, the political world had turned, propelled by new bursts of violence in Iraq, new questions about incompetence in the waging of the war in Iraq, and an intelligence report suggesting that the American invasion had actually worsened the terrorist threat.
As Republicans and Democrats reviewed the outcome of a midterm election yesterday that upended political power in Washington, they pointed to this span of time as the most critical period of the campaign.
Aides on both sides said that, as much as anything this year, the parties’ contrasting reactions to the renewed violence in Iraq accounted for the breadth of a Democratic victory that cost Republicans close to 30 seats in the House and, it appears, control of the Senate.
From October on, in stump speeches and television advertisements, the Democrats moved the war front and center. Republican candidates began to avoid the issue. Yet to the increasing distress of Republican Party strategists, the White House appeared to play into Democratic hands, as Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney continued to offer arguments for victory .
“Iraq was the driving factor behind everything,” Mr. Emanuel said, in an assessment that drew little argument from his Republican counterparts yesterday. “And October was a disastrous month.”
(The rest is here.)
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
New York Times
This article was reported by Adam Nagourney, Jim Rutenberg and Jeff Zeleny and written by Mr. Nagourney.
On a warm night in mid-September, Representative Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois Democrat leading his party’s campaign to win back the House, stood in front of I Ricchi, a stylish Italian restaurant in downtown Washington, screaming at an aide who happened to be in his sight.
Why, he demanded, had Iraq fallen off the front pages and the evening news, replaced by President Bush’s weeklong commemoration of the Sept. 11 anniversary? How could Democrats win if this unpopular war was fought uncovered? As he headed in for dinner, he pronounced himself as despondent about his party’s hopes as he had been all year.
Two weeks later, the political world had turned, propelled by new bursts of violence in Iraq, new questions about incompetence in the waging of the war in Iraq, and an intelligence report suggesting that the American invasion had actually worsened the terrorist threat.
As Republicans and Democrats reviewed the outcome of a midterm election yesterday that upended political power in Washington, they pointed to this span of time as the most critical period of the campaign.
Aides on both sides said that, as much as anything this year, the parties’ contrasting reactions to the renewed violence in Iraq accounted for the breadth of a Democratic victory that cost Republicans close to 30 seats in the House and, it appears, control of the Senate.
From October on, in stump speeches and television advertisements, the Democrats moved the war front and center. Republican candidates began to avoid the issue. Yet to the increasing distress of Republican Party strategists, the White House appeared to play into Democratic hands, as Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney continued to offer arguments for victory .
“Iraq was the driving factor behind everything,” Mr. Emanuel said, in an assessment that drew little argument from his Republican counterparts yesterday. “And October was a disastrous month.”
(The rest is here.)
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