TN GOP Senate hopefuls say Iraq war isn't an issue

Not sure what these guys are smoking.

GOP Senate hopefuls say Iraq war isn't an issue
Bush popular, they say, but MTSU poll finds drop

http://www.tennessean.com/...

Negative public opinion about the war in Iraq won't be much of a factor in next month's Republican U.S. Senate primary, according to the three main candidates.

Former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker and former U.S. Reps. Ed Bryant and Van Hilleary say Republican primary voters in Tennessee generally support President Bush and the war in Iraq.

The candidates instead are focusing on issues like abortion, immigration and federal spending.

But a Middle Tennessee State University poll released in March found Bush's approval rating in the state was 42 percent -- from 55 percent a year earlier -- while one in four of those polled said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were the No. 1 problem for the country.

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"You really don't hear so much about the war in Iraq -- it's actually surprising," said Corker. "You all (in the media) are asking about that issue. It's just not an issue that comes up a great deal on the campaign trail."

(OK blame the media)
...

An Associated Press-Ipsos poll last month found that 59 percent of Americans say the United States erred in going to war in Iraq, but Hilleary said he doesn't see those national attitudes filtering down.

"Most people that vote in the Republican primary are supportive of the war, as am I," he said. "And I think President Bush has done a better job than John Kerry would have done."

Hilleary also said he expects Bush's poll numbers to rebound before the general election.

The AP-Ipsos poll of 1,003 adults was completed shortly before the announcement that U.S. airstrikes had killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida leader in Iraq. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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I think the people in Tennessee are willing to support this president, realizing that it's better that we fight the terrorists over there than over here in this country," said Bryant.

In a recently launched television ad, Bryant pledges to "win the war on terror."

Hilleary said he would have preferred "more boots on the ground" following the invasion of Iraq, while Corker said he doesn't see much purpose in "Monday morning quarterbacking" the conflict.

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(And now a sane voice)

U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr., the likely Democratic candidate, said he finds it hard to believe that voters will not be thinking about the war when they cast their ballots.

"The war in Iraq has cost $400 billion, we've lost 2,500 soldiers," Ford said at a campaign event. "I don't know what world my Republican opponents are living in if they don't believe the war in Iraq is an important issue to people across this state."