Solidarity helps incumbents

The Political Science Graduate Student Association sponsored a panel discussion, "September 11 and the American Public," Monday in Woodburn Hall. Political science professors Gerald Wright, Robert Huckfeldt and Marjorie Hershey served as panelists. \nQuestions concerning the President's and Congress' response to the terrorist attacks, possible changes in public opinion and possible media bias of coverage on the war on terrorism were among the topics discussed. \n"I would love to talk about this as if it were all in the past," said Hershey. "But there's a continuing threat of more attacks."\nThe approval ratings of President George W. Bush and Congress continue to increase dramatically since Sept 11. Bush's approval rating is at 90 percent while Congress' is 83 percent, Huckfeldt said. The decline in partisanship around the nation's capital may contribute to the high ratings, he said. \n"The American people have never seen a unity between Congress and the President like this before," Huckfeldt said. "Congress is terrified right now to say anything."\nThe unification of public opinion since the terrorist attacks may help politicians during mid-term elections in Congress and help Bush when he approaches reelection in 2004, but politicians can't depend on that, Huckfeldt said.\nSuch strong unison among Congressmen is not normal and at some point they will get back to the normal state of politics with bickering between politicians and low approval ratings, Huckfeldt said.\n"Politicians are incredibly timid," Huckfeldt said. "Until they can be confident in voicing different opinions again then they won't get reelected."\nSo far Bush has tried to use his high approval ratings and the unified feeling of Congress and American people to promote his political agenda, Huckfeldt said.\n"Bush is trying to wrap the current crisis around other things he would have done anyway, like tax cuts and drilling in the arctic," he said. "He's figuring out how far he can go with his agenda while keeping a unified feeling."\nBut the unified public opinion is declining and that could hurt Bush's agenda for reelection.\n"There's increasing ambivalence among public opinion," Huckfeldt said. "Current public opinion polls mask what a lot of people are feeling about the war on terrorism."\nPublic ignorance of what's going on with foreign policy does exist, Hershey said. Because the war is being fought in another country the public depends on the media to present information about U.S. involvement in Afghanistan from an objective view.\n"The media have reported what's going on, but haven't done much analysis," Wright said. "The public are left to wonder what the U.S. is really doing"