Over at NRO, David Frum looks at the recent NYT/CBS poll and opines: "Let me hazard an interpretation of the 2002 election based on these poll results. That election looks more and more like a referendum on this single question: Is the United States at war or not? The Democratic answer was �not.� ... The Republicans, by contrast, argued that war and peace were the supreme issues and that everything else fell into second, third, and fourth place. The public agreed -- and that�s why the GOP won."

He's right, of course, but he's only telling half the story. The other half involves the GOP's remarkably successful strategy of co-opting traditional "Democratic" issues -- like a massive new Medicare drug benefit -- by passing bills in the House that they knew would never get through the Senate. It will be interesting to see whether they carry through on these promises now that they're firing with real bullets.
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