An interesting nugget from today's Rasmussen Daily Snapshot:
"Despite the Russian invasion of Georgia, daily tracking data shows no shift in voter priorities for Election 2008. Forty-one percent (41%) say economic issues are most important while just 22% name national security issues as the top priority."
This is one of those situations that highlights the chasm that separates high end news gatherers (like the people who read this website or listen to Rush Limbaugh) and the vastly larger population of ordinary people. High end news gatherers, both those of the left and right, have focused on Georgia this week. Casual news gatherers? A different story.
On Wednesday night, I watched the local 11 o'clock news, something I hardly ever do. The smiling anchors didn't mention the crisis in Georgia until 11:13. They did, however, tell me how I could address my chronic lower back pain well before then, so the experience wasn't a total loss. Bear in mind that local news shows, like local talk radio shows, relentlessly cater their product to their customers' interests. Make no mistake - they tend to have a solid sense of what's on their viewers'/listeners' minds. Rasmussen's polling results confirm that the local news guys knew what they were doing this week using the crisis in Georgia as a lead-in to the extended weather forecast.
There's a message in here for the candidates, albeit not one that Republicans necessarily want to hear.
