Why Is This News?

CNN has taken a poll that states Bush would lose an election to a Democratic challenger if one were held this year. Besides being totally irrelevant, this poll suffers from one gigantic flaw. You can't have an election consisting of a person vs. an ideology. It isn't a logical comparison, it is a referendum on Bush, and with approval ratings well under 50%, it makes sense that he would lose. If we were to flip the poll question around and run any Democratic against a nameless, faceless Republican challenger, it is fairly obvious the challenger would win. Regardless of the fact that the Republican base is considerably larger (explained in Politics and Polarization), without a specific alternative, the poll becomes entirely subjective as to what people would regard as the virtues of the challenger.

Going back to the 2004 election, George Bush didn't win on a calculated matchup of political values, he won because John Kerry was a complete douchebag. I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I don't vote because I identify strongly with one of the candidates, I vote because in essence to pick the lesser of two evils. Like the election for mascot on South Park, I chose Turd Sandwich over Giant Douche. Would I vote for the Democratic challenger over Bush? Not likely, because when I hear Democrat I think of all the major flaws associated with a Kerry, Feinstein, Schumer, HRC, or other mainstream weasel-crat. However, if I changed my a priori conception of Democrat to match up more closely with a CharlesPierce, then the choice becomes tougher. Without some kind of definitive characteristics for the challenger, every single person polled is basically answering a different question once they read in their own personal beliefs associated with the label "Democrat", so I would say the question is entirely worthless.

On a different note, I got wicked drunk with a PGA tour player last night and argued about marginal tax rates on the rich. It totally kicked ass. I even got a job offer to drive his RV around next year from tour event to tour event, and I'm actually considering it...