Democrats back to defensive on the war

Donald Lambro:

Cracks have appeared in the Democrats' once-unified opposition to the Iraq war, dimming their chances of using the issue to their advantage in the 2008 elections, Republicans say.

Four months before the first primaries, Republican leaders say positive reports — including some from Democrats — about President Bush's troop surge are convincing voters that the strategy should be given more time to succeed.

Security gains in Iraq not only divided the Democrats, but also put them on the defensive about an issue they thought would help them win back the White House, Republican leaders and party strategists say.

"Left-wing activists and their allies in Congress were banking on August as a watershed for the antiwar movement," House Minority Leader John A. Boehner said Friday. "But as the calendar turns to September, they're finding that these plans completely and utterly failed."

Republican lawmakers heard "less about Iraq, but more about immigration" during their August recess, a senior official in the House Republican leadership told The Washington Times.

Independent pollster John Zogby reported last week that Republicans, indeed, had made gains with voters on the Iraq issue during the past month, with 54 percent now believing the war can be won.

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While the turn on the issue is not clear cut yet, it will be hard for the Democrats to avoid the torpedoes in their wake. Public opinion on this issue took a long time to turn against the war, and it will be a slow climb back to sanity on the issue, but August looks like a turning point that is getting harder to ignore.