Good news for the donkeys in a recent CBS/NY Times poll.

By some measures, the survey found voters to be in their darkest mood about the economy in 18 years; 62 percent said they believed that the economy was getting worse, the highest percentage since the run-up to the recession in 1990. Seventy-five percent said they believed that the country has "seriously gotten off on the wrong track," also similar to levels in the early 1990s, when such discontent fueled Bill Clinton’s presidential run.

That wrong-track number is just astonishing. They’re obviously not listening to Rudy.

But this tidbit really jumped out at me:

Change has emerged as an abstract rallying cry in the campaign debate. According to the poll, what the voters mean when they talk about change is new approaches to the economy and the war. Issues that have loomed large in the GOP debate — notably immigration, taxes and moral values — pale by comparison.

Since the debates began, Republicans have been essentially having an extended circle jerk conversation with themselves, trying to out-wingnut each other for their loony base on national television. Unless you’re obsessed with keeping the brown people out, want to double Gitmo, and think pooh-poohing the Enlightenment is good sport, you probably didn’t get much out of them.

The issues are on our side. If we stick to them, we win.