Day: June 25, 2007

Does the U.N. Still Matter?

Buck Banks

Parade magazine, that venerable arbiter of objectivity and fairness, is running an on-line poll this week about the United Nations. It’s a simple question: Does the U.N. still matter? That’s a fair question — would that it had been asked in the context of a fair and objective article.

But it’s not. The article is long on criticism of the U.N. and short on criticism of the Bush administration, which has done much to harm the effectiveness and standing of the United Nations. The administration’s only act more crass than thumbing its nose at the world body on the eve of the invasion of Iraq was to send John Bolton — a stolid critic of the organization — there as U.S. ambassador.

Granted, the U.N. has never been that cool, collective, Esperanto-speaking, august body of the world’s best and brightest solving the world’s problems to make a better world. But it’s all we’ve got as a super-national entity. There’s not going to be any 20-foot tall robot named Gort to come down and make the nations of the Earth stop fighting like in “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” Closest we have is U.N. Attorney General Ban Ki-moon.

So go to the Parade poll and vote that the U.N. still does matter.

Poll: Dems On a Roll — Kind of

Buck Banks

Catch the aura: Seems the Democratic Party is on the rise, with a majority of Americans polled expressing support for a “generic” Democratic candidate for prez. Problem is, there are no “generic” Dem candidates — they’ve all got liabilities and personalities and other stuff that makes them somewhat acceptable but not as the iconic Democratic uber candidate that would be the polar opposite of the current resident fo 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

National Journal’s PollWatch was sratching its number-crunching noggin over the fact that Democrats seem to be more satisfied — enthusiastic even — about their primary choices than Republicans, who will probably not be jazzed even after former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson enters the race (Thanks, Mr. President!). Other poll findings:

In a recent Newsweek survey, the three top Democrats — Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama — led in every combination of matchups against the top four Republicans — Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson. It is crucial, however, to note that the poll was [composed] of 40 percent Democrats, 29 percent Republicans and 27 percent independents.

All three Democrats had double-digit leads over Thompson and Romney.

For Democrats, the most precarious matchup may be Edwards versus Giuliani, as 48 percent said they would vote for the former North Carolina senator if the former New York City mayor was his opponent. Giuliani received 46 percent in that scenario. But Edwards stacked up best against Romney at 57 percent to 36 percent; the 21-point gap was the largest margin of all 12 heats tested.

Clinton was strongest of the three against Giuliani with her seven-point lead, and Obama was the biggest threat to McCain with his 10-point advantage. All three Democrats had double-digit leads over Thompson and Romney.

Newsweek pollsters also threw New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) into matchups including Clinton, Giuliani, McCain, Obama and Thompson. Although there has been much speculation over which party Bloomberg might hurt more should he jump into the race, both Clinton’s and Obama’s margins of victory increased in their head-to-head matchups against the GOP front-runners with Bloomberg in the field. (His support was just north of 10 percent in all six cases.)

Also of note in the survey were the primary fields, because while Obama trails Clinton by 16 points, 27 percent still supported him — that’s the same percentage of support as the top candidate in the Republican field, Giuliani. Of course, the Republican Party has the disadvantage of an unpopular president in office now. In a new American Research Group poll, President Bush’s approval rating rests at a dismal 27 percent.