Governor, Senate Polls

Hatch's gubernatorial bid is looking pretty bleak in light of a new Survey USA poll that puts Pawlenty up 50-36%.

The same poll put Amy Klobuchar ahead of Bush lapdog Mark Kennedy, 47-42.

A second Senate poll, conducted for the DSCC, has Klobuchar up 48-30.

Klobuchar looks pretty safe; I haven't seen any polls with Kennedy pulling more than 42%; meanwhile this is the second poll where we've seen Klobuchar leading handily, (the other being a Star-Trib poll conducted last week showing her with a large 19 point lead.)

Hatch, on the other hand, may be sunk. For all Pawlenty's faults, Hatch seems content to not exploit any of them. Instead of being aggressive, Hatch has played a reactionary role in this election so far, only criticizing unconvincingly after Pawlenty acts. He needs to step it up. It remains to be seen if he's got the guts to win this.

Also, there's a very informative article about the situation on the ground in Iraq in The New York Times. I highly recommend it.

While the Bush administration professes a commitment to Iraq’s unity, it has no intention of undertaking the major effort required to put the country together again... For the United States to contain the civil war, we would have to deploy more troops and accept a casualty rate many times the current level as our forces changed their mission from a support role to intensive police duties. The American people would not support such an expanded mission, and the Bush administration has no desire to undertake it.

Galbraith breaks down the situations within the various regions of Iraq and explains some of the tensions. He also tries to articulate a winning strategy consistent with the sacrifice the U.S. is willing to make.

-Aaron