[c.t.ner]

Originally Posted by Jacks

Agree with the premise but 50% is pretty much unreachable for the WR IMO. The PC"s barely broke 50% at their peak, 40's are pretty good.

The low 40s are pretty good, but it's always been the ceiling of popularity for the WRP. (I'm basing this of the trends since 2008 shown in this graph http://johnbsantos.com/2012/03/27/po...-2008-to-2012/). The PCs had over 50% when Redford was first elected and 60% right after the last election. I know that was a different time, but it is an indicator of the ceiling for the parties.

Originally Posted by Jacks

Exactly, it will all come down to timing. There will surely be some pull back now that some people are calling for a WR majority. The question is do they have time to surge back up again. The debates will be absolutely crucial in this campaign.

I agree that the debates will be absolutely critical for this election. One slip up from Smith or Redford during those and it would be disastrous. I do think that Smith would rather have Redford barely leading and on the defensive than being the front runner walking in. But again that ties into whole concept of timing. Smith would rather have Redford being attacked by Mason and Sherman, and only having to deal with attacks from Redford. But with her in the lead, you're going to see a full on attack from Redford and then split attacks from Mason & Sherman. My gut feeling is that like most debates, there won't be any huge momentum swing. Could be wrong though.

Originally Posted by Jacks

I personally hate the Danidollars but in talking to people, listening to call in shows and reading comment boards it seems to be fairly popular. As for conscience rights, I haven't heard anyone mention it anywhere except on this forum.

I think Danidollars will be a 50/50 split between the population. The difference between Ralph bucks and Danidollars is that Ralph bucks came after an election and was a totally new concept. Plus there was really no outlet for people to complain, people just cashed their checks and moved on. While Danidollars is a campaign promise, there are a few people in this thread that have already said it's put them off the WRP and I would suspect that concept will continue. It's not going to tank the campaign, but it'll be something that moderits and people in the center will continue to question. Especially when the main topics continue to be Education and Health Care.

The Conscience Rights issue is something that I think will continue to dog the WRP. I agree it hasn't been the hottest topic covered by the media, but it was the center of conversation online for most of the day. I've already seen people reposting the link that Slava posted on Facebook and I expect in a couple of days to see that topic start hitting the mainstream.