It doesnt look good for Santorum....

As U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum makes fighting global terrorism his closing pitch of the campaign, the latest Temple/Inquirer Poll shows that growing doubts about the Iraq war continue to erode support for Republicans.

More voters than a month ago say the war - which remains the defining issue in the November election - has made the country less safe from terrorism, while the percentage saying they feel safer has dropped. At the same time, a majority of voters, 52 percent, want the United States to either decrease troop levels in Iraq or pull out altogether.

In greater numbers than men, women say they feel less safe, disapprove of the Iraq war and President Bush, and prefer Democrats taking over Congress.

All of this has created a drag on Santorum's campaign and those of Republican House candidates, the poll found.

Over the last month, Santorum has increasingly portrayed himself as the candidate who better understands the threats facing America, hoping to frame the debate around national security rather than Iraq. Last week, he staged a "Gathering Storm" tour - a two-day swing through seven counties to warn that Americans are "sleepwalking" through the threats.

The Temple/Inquirer poll shows Santorum has lost ground to his Democratic opponent, Bob Casey Jr. A month ago, Casey led the two-term senator by 11 points. The latest poll has Casey ahead 54 percent to 38 percent with 6 percent undecided.

The poll's results are based on telephone interviews with 698 likely voters statewide. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points. The poll was conducted between Oct. 16 and Oct. 25.

"The war in Iraq is the issue that is playing most heavily in Casey's favor," said pollster Michael G. Hagen, an associate professor of political science at Temple and director of the school's Institute for Public Affairs. "Pennsylvanians, like people all over the country, are becoming more discouraged with the situation, less convinced than they were two years ago that going to war in Iraq was the right thing to do, and less certain about what to do next.

"All that is working against Republican incumbents," he added.

I had a conversation the other night with an Aussie buddy about the upcoming elections. I am far from ready to declare the GOP dead in these elections, but signs are pointing to a rough time for them, and the half assed measures to justify the continuing strategy in Iraq, or the scare voters into voting GOP, just dont seem to be working at this point.

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