Griper Blade: It's the Economy [and Iraq], Stupid!

Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold holds listening sessions around the state, to make sure he doesn't become out of touch with the electorate. Basically, he shows up at cities, towns, and villages, sits down, and lets the people attending guide the discussion. In these listening sessions, one thing has become clear to him -- people are really angry about Iraq.

A recent item in The Capital Times illustrates the point:

[Feingold] said that in recent listening sessions across Wisconsin, he has intentionally not mentioned the war, seeing if citizens raised the issue themselves. The result? The war remains the number one topic in those discussions, he said.

"The people do want this, even while the consultants are telling us not to talk about it," Feingold said.

The "this" that the people want is a bill to cut funding for the occupation of Iraq. You're going to have to go anecdotal with me here, but this backs up something I heard from a pollster on NPR. When asked about the nation's top priority, respondents generally say what they believe other people think -- most recently, the economy. But when you make it clear that you want to know what they think, they tend to list Iraq at the top.

"I didn’t bring up Iraq at those January meetings because I wanted to see whether it was still a major concern, particularly with these audiences," Feingold says. "And guess what -- in every single meeting, they brought it up with me. And they didn’t just bring it up -- they asked what we are doing to bring home the troops."...

[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]