Around the world with VDH

Victor Davis Hanson offers up another quicky state of the world piece, and ends up wondering why, given all of the favorable developments, the Democratic contenders persist in making world “disaster” the central theme of their campaigns. Actually, it seems to me that the contenders are moving away from that approach. This is certainly the case with Kerry and Edwards, both of whom voted to authorize the war. These two understand that they can score points with Democratic voters, and avoid alienating swing voters, by focusing on domestic issues. On the other hand, talking about Iraq just plays into Dean’s hands with Democrats and doesn’t play well with moderates.
Hanson notes that the economy is growing. However, Democratic voters remain receptive to the argument that, for many, the recovery is not a reality, and that the large deficits are a serious concern. And the more perceptive Democrats surely noticed how much stronger President Bush sounded Tuesday night on foreign policy and security issues than on domestic concerns.
The emerging approach, then, may well be to focus on domestic issues for a while. Iraq will always be there if it goes badly.

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